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CMYK

September 2008The Vedic World View

Vol. 113, No. 9

ISSN 0032- 6178

9 770032 617002

A monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896

PRABUDDHA BHARATA

Rs 8.00

or AWAKENED INDIA

PB September 2008

Traditional Wisdom

This Month

Editorial: The Vedic Vision

‘Tat-tvam-asi Shwetaketu’ Swami Alokananda

The Story of Yajnavalkya Swami Ritananda

The Kanyā Tejasvinī of Indian Culture Dr Prema Nandakumar

May We All Be Nachiketas Swami Divyasukhananda

Narada Bhakti Sutra Swami Bhaskareswarananda

Light on Patanjali – II Swami Sarvagatananda

Vithoba of Pandharpur Dr Suruchi Pande

Ramakrishna’s Influence on Girish’s Plays Swami Chetanananda

Reviews

Reports

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475

479

486

493

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509

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Contents

Editorial OfficePrabuddha BharataAdvaita AshramaPO Mayavati, Via LohaghatDt Champawat · 262 524Uttarakhand, IndiaE-mail: [email protected]

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Vol. 113, No. 9September 2008

Amrita Kalasha

A monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896

Prabuddha bharata

or AwAkened IndIA

471PB September 2008

Wrút²; std{; ŒtËg JhtrªtctuÆt; > Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached!

Traditional Wisdom

September Vol. , No. Jyoti: Light

mqgtuo ‘tk mqgo& v]r:Je k mqgo ytvtu~r; vˆgr; >mqgtuo Cq;ôgifk aGwht h¥htun r=Jk bnebT >>Th e sun looks beyond the sky, beyond earth, beyond the waters. Th e sun, the one eye of what exists, has mounted the great sky. (Atharva Veda, 13.1.45)

Æt{wJk ßgtur;rlorn;k =]Ngu fkU bltu srJ²k v;gÀôJà;& >rJˆJu =uJt& mblm& mfuU;t YfkU f{U;wbrC rJ grà; mtÆtw >>A steady light, swift er than thought, is stationed among moving things to show the way to happiness. All the gods, being of one mind and like wisdom, proceed reverentially towards the one Intelligence. (Rig Veda, 6.9.5)

ygk htuag=h¥atu h¥atltu~gk Jtmg=T Ôg];ul vqJeo& >ygbeg; }U;gwrÉChˆJi& ôJrJo=t ltrClt aMorKv{t& >>He, shining, caused to shine what shone not. By law he lighted up the dawns. He moves with steeds yoked by eternal Order, making people happy by the chariot-nave that fi nds the sunlight. (6.39.4)

gßstd{;tu =qhbw=ir; =iJk ;=w mwË;ôg ;:iJir; >=qhE¸bk ßgtur;Mtk ßgtur;hufkU ;àbu bl& rNJmkfUÖvbô;w >>May that, my mind, capable of illumination—a light of all lights, which rides far when one is awake and returns to its place when one falls asleep—be moved by right intention. (Yajur Veda, 34.1)

rnhãbgu vhu fUtuNu rJhsk c{Ñ rl˜fUjbT >;åAwC{k ßgtur;Mtk ßgtur;ô;‘=tÀbrJ=tu rJ=w& >>In the supreme eff ulgent sheath of intelligence dwells Brahman, the in-fi nite Being—stainless, transcendent, pure. Light of all lights, it is that whom the knowers of the Self realize. (Mundaka Upanishad, 2.2.9)

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THIS MONTH

Th e world view of the Vedic seers was characterized by direct apprehension of the sacred in all aspects of nature and being, a positive, universal, and plu-ralistic outlook on life, and the ability to penetrate into deep spiritual truths. Th is number is dedicated to Th e Vedic Vision.

Th e dialogue between the Vedic rishi Uddalaka Aruni and his son Shwetaketu, as presented in the Chhandogya Upanishad, is a quintessential state-ment of the Advaita Vedanta approach to Truth. It also provides an interesting glimpse into the so-phisticated interpretative skills of the Vedic mind. Swami Alokanandaji of the Ramakrishna Advaita Ashrama, Varanasi, provides us a synoptic view of this dialogue and its meaning for us in ‘Tat-tvam-asi, Shwetaketu’.

Yajnavalkya, a name to reckon with in ancient In-dian literature, is the archetypal Vedic rishi—es-tablished in the knowledge of Brahman, adept at materializing transcendent truths in day-to-day ac-tivities, a formidable dialectician, and a respected teacher. Swami Ritanandaji of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, dwells on the personality of this Vedic sage in Th e Story of Yajnavalkya.

‘Still on this sacred soil of India, this land of Sita and Savitri, among women may be found such

character, such spirit of service, such aff ection, compassion, contentment, and reverence, as I could not fi nd any-

where else in the world,’ Swami Vivekananda once said. Th e

Kanyā Tejasvinī of Indian Cul-ture is a portrait of the heroic

Savitri by Dr Prema Nanda-kumar, Researcher and Liter-

ary Critic, Srirangam.

Th e young Nachiketa has long been seen as the symbol of the ideal spir-itual aspirant: full of dynamic faith, quiet self confi dence, innate respect for the positive aspects of tradition, and burning aspiration; and possess-ing a spontaneous spirit of sacrifi ce and indomitable will. Swami Divya-sukhanandaji of the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Belur, focuses on these aspects as he echoes Swami Vivekananda’s wish: May We All Be Nachiketas.

In the second instalment of the Narada Bhakti Sutra, Swami Bhaskareswaranandaji, former Presi-dent, Ramakrishna Math, Nagpur, discusses the characteristics of para bhakti and the features that mark a person who has attained to this state.

Yoga involves transformation of the psyche and the development of a fresh outlook on life. Th is calls for detachment and the conscious cultivation of mindfulness; the bottom line, of course, is practice. Th ese are some of the insights provided by Swami Sarvagatanandaji, Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, in Light on Patanjali – II.

In the second instalment of her article, Vithoba of Pandharpur, Dr Suruchi Pande, Researcher in San-skrit, Jnanaprabodhini Institute, Pune, takes a look at the history and tradition of the Vithoba temple and the Varkari movement.

Swami Chetananandaji, Minister-in-Charge, Vedanta Society of St Louis, re-views the script of Rupa-Sanatan, one of Girishchandra Ghosh’s important dramas, to highlight Ramakrishna’s Infl uence on Girish’s Plays.

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EDITORIAL

The Vedic Vision

Give sight to our eyes, Give sight to our bodies that they may see. May we survey and discern this world. May we look on thee, Surya the most lovely to behold; See well with human eyes. —Rig Veda, 10.158.4–5

The Madhu Vidya of the Chhandogya Upa-nishad is a wonderful imagery of the sun in relation to the earth and its inhabitants:

‘Yonder sun is, verily, the honey of the gods. Heaven is the cross-beam [of the comb]; intermediate space, antarikṣa, the hive; and the rays are the offspring. The eastern rays of the sun are the eastern honey cells. The Rik verses are the bees; [the rituals laid down in] the Rig Veda is the flower; and the water [of sacrificial libations] is the nectar. These Riks heated the Rig Veda. From it, thus heated, issued forth—as its essence—fame, [physical] lustre, [vig-our of ] the senses, strength, and the food that is eaten.’

To the integral vision of the Vedic rishis, the cos-mos is an organic unit, throbbing with life (prāṇa), consciousness or light ( jyoti), and divinity (deva-tā or deva-tva); and Surya or the Sun is the archetypal symbol of this vision. Not only does the sun—‘the one light (of all), the giver of heat’—sustain life through light and heat, it also powers the hydro-logical cycle: ‘These shining rays are surely water,’ declares a Vedic text.

But physical sustenance is only one of Surya’s many functions. The gods certainly do not eat or drink, na vai devā aśnanti na pibanti, they are sated by the nectar of sacrificial oblations, etadevāmṛtaṁ dṛṣṭvā tṛpyanti. Yajna or sacrifice is a key element of the Vedic way of life: ‘Satyaṁ bṛhad ṛtam-ugraṁ dīkṣā tapo brahma yajñaḥ pṛthivīṁ dhārayanti;

great Truth, formidable Order, consecration, aus-terity, prayer, and sacrifice uphold the earth.’ The fire sacrifice or agnihotra, involving twice-a-day offerings of simple libations of milk or ghee in a consecrated fire, was an important component of Vedic life. Performance of larger sacrificial rituals—and this is one meaning of ‘the Riks heated the Rig Veda’ in the Madhu Vidya cited above—obviously brought glory and fame to the sacrificer.

But the physical ‘fire-sacrifice’ was only one of the many sacrificial elements in Vedic life. In fact, the rishis asserted that virtually every object in the universe could be conceived of as being in a re-ciprocal relationship of food (anna) and its eater (annāda) with other objects. For instance, the Tai-ttiriya Upanishad says: ‘The vital force (prāṇa) is verily food, and the body is the eater of food. The body rests on the prāṇa and the prāṇa rests on the body. Food rests on food.’ Thus, the web of exis-tence is much more intricately interrelated than is evident from the biological food chain. And all activity is sacrificial in nature.

Virtually all our problems—from strained in-terpersonal relations to global warming—can be traced to our lack of recognition of this profound truth about the sacral and sacrificial nature of life and activity. Knowledge of this truth and willing participation in the cosmic sacrifice can engender profound changes in our personality: ‘Atha martyo amṛto bhavati atra brahma samaśnute; then a mor-tal becomes immortal and attains Brahman here (itself ).’

Changing one’s total outlook on life may appear an impossible task. But the Vedas assure us that it is not. They also lead us through the steps neces-sary for this transformation, often in very unob-trusive ways. Attitudes are in the mind; so it is the

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mind that needs to be worked upon. The process is termed upāsana or contemplation. The medi-tative practices prescribed in the Upanishads are also termed vidyā, knowledge; it is knowledge that shapes our attitudes.

‘Ādityo brahma iti ādeśaḥ; the sun is Brah-man, this is the instruction,’ says the Chhandogya Upanishad, as it calls upon us to break free of the limitations of our minds, expand our hearts, and realize the infinitude that is Brahman. We may imagine that we can mentally conceive of infini-tude in spatial or temporal terms, but the Upani-shads wish to achieve something more: they want us to grow into this infinitude. Hence they ask us to contemplate on the sun as a symbol (pratīka) of Brahman.

The sun, to our eyes, is a limited entity. But it possesses a quality that is attributed to Brahman: light. The Chhandogya Upanishad continues, ‘In the beginning all this was indeed unmanifest (non-existent). That became manifest’; and Acharya Shankara clarifies: ‘It is seen that the word “sat, existent” is used with regard to things which have their names and forms manifest. Generally that manifestation of names and forms of the world is dependent on the sun, for in the absence of the sun it would become blinding darkness.’ The Upani-shad reminds us that the creation of the sun is ac-companied by a sound that continues to reverberate throughout its existence, much like the crescendo and decrescendo of mundane noises that follow the sun’s diurnal rising and setting. ‘He who having known this, meditates on the sun as Brahman, to him come quickly beautiful sounds, and give him delight.’ This yogic experience is an early indication of attainment of mental concentration and internal transformation. But there are deeper layers of real-ity that still remain to be uncovered.

The Vedas invite us to look beyond the veil of material objects and perceive the divinity underly-ing all Creation. The sun is not merely a symbol of Brahman, we are reminded: ‘Those who have closed their eyes (to external objects), who have attained concentration of mind, and who depend

on such spiritual disciplines as celibacy’ are able to witness ‘the golden person who is in the sun, who has a golden beard and hair, who is golden to the very tip of his nails’.

How does this vision help us? The Upanishad tells us that as ‘this being [in the sun] has risen above all evil; one who knows this also rises above all evil’. Moreover, the vidyās involve identification with reality of a higher and deeper order—note the phrase ‘with eyes closed’ above. The Brihadaran-yaka Upanishad announces: ‘The being who is in the solar orb and the being who is in the right eye rest on each other. The former rests on the latter through the rays, and the latter rests on the former through the function of the eyes.’ But the being in the sun is also ‘the lord of the worlds beyond the sun, and of all the wishes of the gods [inhabiting those worlds]’.

On identifying with such an entity one’s con-sciousness is bound to undergo a transformative expansion. Hence the Gayatri mantra—a ‘perfect blend of lofty aspiration and willed assertion’—is the one Vedic prayer that remains popular to this day: ‘May he (the Sun) inspire our thoughts that they become illumined visions of truth.’

With expansion of consciousness we realize that we are not mere limited beings, only capable of see-ing, thinking, and imagining: ‘This being identified with the mind and resplendent by nature [is real-ized by the yogis] within the heart as [of the size of ] a grain of rice or barley. He is the lord of all, the ruler of all, and governs all—whatever there is.’

The Prashna Upanishad points out to us the spiritual significance of the sun: ‘(The enlightened sages who have realized Brahman know) the one that is possessed of all forms, full of rays, endowed with illumination, the support of all, the one light (of all), the giver of heat. There rises the sun—the thousand-rayed, existing in a hundred forms, the life of all creatures.’ And the Taittiriya Upanishad reminds us of another profound truth: ‘He that is here in the human person, and He that is there in the sun, are one.’ It is up to us to realize and mani-fest these truths. P

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‘Tat-tvam-asi Shwetaketu’Swami Alokananda

ust as the system of natural numbers is based on the number ‘one’, there is a unifying prin-ciple underlying this amazingly diverse uni-

verse. In their search for the origin of the universe, physicists have managed to isolate the constitu-ents of atomic nuclei, but they still have not been able to locate the ‘unity’ underpinning the physi-cal world. Spiritual seekers, with their eyes turned inward (āvṛttacakṣu san), realized that unity and said, ‘Sadeva somyedamagra āsīdekamevādvitīyam; in the beginning, my dear, this was Being (sat) alone—one alone, without a second.’1 In answer to the question, ‘Revered Sir, what is that by know-ing which all this becomes known?’ the Mundaka Upanishad points to an absolute entity beyond the ken of the senses. Th e Taittiriya Upanishad says: ‘Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante, yena jātāni jīvanti, yat-prayantyabhisaṁviśanti, tad-vijijñāsasva, tad- brahmeti; that from which these beings are born, that by which, when born, they live, that into which they go and merge [at the time of dissolu-tion]—seek to know that, that is Brahman.’2 Th e Chhandogya Upanishad announces the same prin-ciple: ‘Sa ya eṣo’ṇimaitadātmyam-idaṁ sarvaṁ tat-satyaṁ sa ātmā tat-tvam-asi śvetaketo; that which is this subtle essence, all this has got that as the Self, that is Truth, that is the Self, that you are, Shweta-ketu.’3 Th e realization of this unity underlying di-versity is the ultimate knowledge—the culmination and fulfi lment of all knowledge.

Th e Vedas have employed a whole host of nar-ratives to make this subtle truth intelligible. Th e commentator, Acharya Shankara, reiterates this: ‘ākhyāyikā vidyā-stutyarthā; the story is in praise of the science.’ Th e principle of unity is dealt with in detail in the dialogue between Uddalaka Aruni and Shwetaketu, in the sixth chapter of the Chhandogya

Upanishad. Incidentally, in the fi ft h chapter of the same Upanishad, both Uddalaka Aruni and Shweta-ketu approach King Pravahana Jaivali for instruc-tion in the pancāgni vidyā, meditation on the fi ve fi res, which serves as a prelude to the ultimate knowledge of the Self.

On Knowing That, Everything Is Known

When Uddalaka, a Vedic rishi, found that his son Shwetaketu had not begun the study of the Vedas even at the age of twelve, the age for upanayana or initiation into Vedic studies, he sent him to the house of a teacher. When Shwetaketu returned home aft er having studied the Vedas for twelve years, the father was shocked to fi nd him vain and im-modest. Knowledge ought to make a person hum-ble. Uddalaka said to his son, ‘Did you ask (your teacher) about that instruction through which the unheard of is heard, the unthought of is thought of, and the unknown becomes known?’ Shwetaketu was surprised. Could there ever be anything know-ing which everything else is known? How could knowing about one object bring about knowledge of an unrelated entity? Aft er all, we learn about ob-jects by noting their distinctive identities.

Uddalaka explained: All transformation is change of name and form, nāma and rūpa, which are superimposed on an underlying substance. Hav-ing known a piece of clay one gets to know all ob-jects made of clay, having known a piece of gold one gets to know all objects made of gold, and having known a piece of iron one gets to know all objects made of iron—for all modifi cations are mere words, having speech as their basis, the underlying sub-stance (clay, gold, or iron) is the reality (6.1.4–6). Th e entire world of phenomena, being a series of transformations, is a conglomerate of forms with

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corresponding names—the transformations are mere names; knowledge of the one, indivisible Existence underlying all phenomena gives us the knowledge of all that exists.

Shwetaketu understood that his learning was in-complete. He requested his father to give him the knowledge which he spoke about. Uddalaka was happy to find his son humbly seeking further know-ledge. Gurūpasadana, approaching the guru for-mally, in all humility, was an essential prerequisite for studentship in ancient India. Even princes had to follow this procedure—they would go to the guru ‘faggots in hand, samitpāṇi ’. Being satisfied with his son’s behaviour Uddalaka said: ‘In the beginning, my dear, this (universe) was Being (sat) alone, one only, without a second. … It (Being, Brahman) cogi-tated, “I shall be many, I shall be born.” It created fire.’ From fire arose the waters, and from the waters food. Brahman entered these primeval entities to manifest name and form. On being consumed by the individual, the subtle aspects of food, water, and fire give rise to mind, vital force (prāṇa), and speech. Hence, ‘the mind consists of food, prāṇa of water, and speech of fire’ (6.6.5).

Food as Mind and Water as Prāṇa

Shwetaketu could not understand how food be-came the mind or water prāṇa. Uddalaka decided to explain the matter with a practical example. He asked Shwetaketu to avoid taking food for fifteen days and live only on water. Shwetaketu survived this test as the water he was taking ensured that prāṇa did not leave the body. But he could not re-call the Vedic mantras that he had earlier commit-ted to memory. Uddalaka explained: ‘Just as a single ember, the size of a firefly, remains as the residue of a big fire, and by that nothing bigger is burnt, even so, my dear, of your sixteen parts only one remains; with that you are unable to recall the Vedas. Eat, and then you will understand me.’ Shwetaketu started taking food again, and his memory was revived. He understood how the mind was made of food and the vital force of water. Next Uddalaka pointed out that pure Being underlies all phenomenal objects de-

rived from food, water, and fire. The body is born of food, and food of water; and water has fire (energy) as its source. Fire, or tejas, originates from Being, from Brahman. Thus ‘when a person departs hence, speech is withdrawn into the mind, mind into vital force, vital force into fire, and fire into the supreme Deity’ (6.8.6). The body of the dying person stops speaking, fails to respond to commands, becomes bereft of life, and turns cold in succession. The indi-vidual is then merged in Being, although this merger is only temporary, as in deep sleep. The phenomenal name and form are transitory and are hence termed unreal, mithyā. Sat or Being is ever-existent: ‘All creatures are rooted in Being, they dwell in Being, and (finally) merge in Being’ (ibid.).

Why Don’t We Know the Self?

As one moves between the different rooms in one’s house, one continues to have a memory of all the things found in these rooms. But though we be-come one with sat every night, in deep sleep, we fail to remember this fact on awakening. So, how can one assert that all beings are born of sat and dwell in sat? Uddalaka gives two illustrative examples to clarify this: ‘As bees, my dear, make honey by col-lecting the juices of trees located at different places, and reduce them to one form, and these juices have no such distinctive ideas as “I am the juice of this tree” or “I am the juice of that tree” ’; or ‘these east-ward rivers flow to the east and westward to the west; they arise from the sea and flow into the sea. Just as these rivers, while they are in the sea, do not know “I am this river” or “I am that river”’, even so ‘all these creatures having come from pure Being, do not realize that they have come from pure Being’ (6.9.1, 6.10.1–2).

A wave or a bubble arising out of the vast waters of the sea loses its individuality on merger with the sea; how is it then that the individual being, jiva, is not destroyed upon merger with pure Being at the time of death? Uddalaka takes up this issue next: ‘If one were to strike at the root of this big tree, it would bleed but live; if one were to strike in the middle, it would bleed but live; if one were to strike


17‘Tat-tvam-asi Shwetaketu’

at the top, it would bleed but live. Pervaded by the living self, the tree continues to live happily, drink-ing in its nourishment.

‘If the jiva leaves any one branch of this tree, that branch dries up. If it leaves a second branch, that one dries up too. If it leaves a third branch, even that dries up. When it leaves the whole, the whole tree withers.’ In exactly the same manner, ‘bereft of the living self, this body dies; the living self dies not. That which is this subtle essence—in it all that exists has its self. That thou art, Shwetaketu’ (6.11.1–3).

Not all doubts are gone yet; how can this gross world of name and form emerge from a very sub-tle unitary principle? Uddalaka is a good teacher. He comes down to the level of the student and provides illustrative examples that are easy to com-prehend. He asks Shwetaketu to fetch a fruit from the banyan tree in front. When the fruit is fetched, he says, ‘Break it. What do you see inside?’ ‘These grains (seeds), exceedingly small,’ Shwetaketu an-swers. ‘Break one of them. What do you see there?’ the father continues. ‘Nothing,’ says Shwetaketu. ‘That subtle essence, my dear, which you do not perceive there—from that very essence this huge banyan tree arises. Believe me, my dear. That which is this subtle essence, all this has got that as the Self, ’ summed up Uddalaka (6.12.1–3).

Why Don’t We Perceive the Self?

If the Atman is Existence itself and if it pervades all existent objects, how is it that we do not per-ceive it? An existent object must be perceivable. This doubt of Shwetaketu’s continues to echo in human minds even today. Let us look at the solu-tion offered by Uddalaka: ‘Place this (lump of ) salt in water and then come to me in the morning,’ he tells Shwetaketu. The son does as he is told. The next morning Uddalaka says to Shwetaketu, ‘Son, bring me the salt that you placed in the water last night.’ The salt, of course, has dissolved and cannot be found. Uddalaka next asks Shwetaketu to sip the water from one end, the middle, and the other end. It tasted salty every time. ‘The salt was there on each occasion,’ remarks Shwetaketu. ‘Even so, my

dear,’ Uddalaka adds, ‘you do not perceive Being in this body; but it is indeed there’ (6.13.1–2).

Sensory knowledge is mediate; it is therefore both limited and coloured by the nature of the senses. We cannot hope to perceive the entity that is beyond the reach of the senses with such instru-ments or with mere argumentation. But the insight born of discriminative thinking attended by faith, śraddhā, can help us realize this principle. Hence Uddalaka urged Shwetaketu: ‘śraddhatsva somyeti; have faith, my dear’ (6.12.2).

How Do We Realize the Self?

We gather from Uddalaka’s explanations that the knowledge of the Being that is the primal source of this world is the consummation of all knowledge and is the source of ultimate fulfilment. But how are we to attain the knowledge of this entity beyond the senses? Uddalaka introduces another interest-ing narrative to explicate the matter: Just as when a person from the remote country of Gandhara is brought (handcuffed and) blindfolded to a solitary place and left there, he keeps shouting piteously and searching for the way back, when a kind and know-ledgeable person removes his ties and blindfolds and shows him the way to Gandhara, and thus in-structed, the intelligent victim traverses a long dis-tance to reach Gandhara, enquiring about the path of the villages on the way, in similar manner, when the jiva, blinded by ignorance and lost in the wilder-ness of the world, earnestly seeks deliverance, then some great teacher provides the person with the liberating knowledge: ‘Tat-tvam-asi; That thou art’. After hearing this instruction from the guru, the disciple undertakes reflection, manana, and medi-tation, nididhyāsana, to realize Brahman, the source of this universe. Having realized Brahman, the per-son becomes a jivanmukta, free while living. Such persons have no attachment to the body, which per-sists by virtue of prārabdha, the result of actions that have started bearing fruit. When prārabdha is exhausted, the person is freed of even the semblance of attachment to the body: ‘Tasya tāvadeva ciraṁ yāvanna vimokṣye’tha sampatsye; for him there is

Prabuddha Bharata18

delay only as long as he is not liberated [from the body], then he merges into Being’ (6.14.2).

In this manner Uddalaka explained to Shweta-ketu the nature of the ultimate Truth that, though invisible to the gross eye, is the substrate of the phe-nomenal world—its source, support, and ultimate end—knowing which everything else is known. And the crux of this remarkable teaching is that this en-tity called sat animates all existence as its inner Self, it is the Truth that resides in all beings as the Atman. We are this sat in our innermost being as much as Shweta ketu is. Having obtained this teaching, Shweta ketu attained to wholeness and fulfi lment.

It might be questioned if this narrative from the Chhandogya Upanishad has the same relevance today as it had in days of yore. It certainly has. Th e Upanishadic truths are timeless. Self-knowledge is coveted by all people, at all time, and in all climes. Th e unifying knowledge that this represents is sought aft er even by physicists, though only on the material plane. For a total realization of this Being, complete destruction of the limiting ego is as essential as is śraddhā. Mere listening does not provide knowledge. It has to be acquired, and the Upanishads mention śravaṇa or hearing, manana, and nididhyāsana as means for this acquisition. A whole series of doubts arose in Shwetaketu’s mind.

Th is indicates that he had undertaken manana. And that he could master this knowledge shows that he had perfected nididhyāsana as well. Viewed from the psychological standpoint, śravaṇa, manana, and nididhyāsana involve knowing acceptance of the counter-intuitive nature of the instructions of the guru, adjusting one’s thought and behaviour to this newly acquired truth, and fi nally blending or merging one’s being in the ultimate Truth or pure Being. Passing through this entire process is essen-tial for the acquisition of knowledge.

Uddalaka is an ideal teacher. He patiently set about instructing his pupil in accordance with his mental make-up and inclination. Th e simple prac-tical examples that he off ers can be comprehended by virtually anyone. If we too purge ourselves of egotism and arrogance as Shwetaketu did, seek in-structions from a competent guru in all humility and with a concentrated mind, and then refl ect deeply and meditate intensely on the instructions received, we too shall attain to wholeness and ful-fi lment. P

References

1. Chhandogya Upanishad,6.2.1. 2. Taittiriya Upanishad,3.1.1. 3. Chhandogya Upanishad,6.8.7.

One of the grandest conceptions of life as a sacrifi ce is to be found in the Chāndogya (3.1–17), which, by the way, is the richest storehouse of Upanisadic meditation. This Upanisad says, ‘Man himself is a sacrifi ce’, and shows

in detail how this can be so. Man’s life, divided into three stages, is compared to the three periods in a sacrifi ce called savanas. Each period is given its proper deities. The fi rst stage is presided over by the Vasus, who work for life’s stabil-ity, for life requires the utmost attention during this period. They are succeeded in youth by the Rudras, the energetic gods, who are often cruel. Consequently, a man must be extremely judicious in what he does in his youth. Old age is presided over by the Ādityas, who attract everything towards them. Men, then attracted by higher forces, prepare for the fi nal departure after making their best contribution to the world. In this connection, we are also asked to look on distress caused by hunger and thirst as dīksā (initiation) into a higher life of struggle and achievement; on charity, non-killing, truth, etc. as daksinā (off erings to the performers of our sacrifi ce, i.e. to our good neighbours); on merriment and laughter as hymns and songs to gods; and on death as the bath after the sacrifi ce is completed.

There are many other practical hints for transforming life into a spiritual discipline. The Brhadāranyaka (5.11) instructs us to look on death and disease as tapasyā (penance): ‘This indeed is excellent austerity that a man suff ers when he is ill. … This indeed is excellent austerity that a man after death is carried to the forest. … This indeed is excellent tapasyā that a man after death is placed on the fi re.’ —The Cultural Heritage of India, .

Life as a Sacrifi ce


The Story of YajnavalkyaSwami Ritananda

It was in the Vedic Age that the seeds of all subsequent spiritual attainments in India were sown. Apart from the pastoral simplicity of the

people, that age was marked by an integral view of reality and a holistic outlook on life. Th ere was then hardly any distinction between the sacred and the secular, and all activities, including biological functions, were regarded as participation in cosmic sacrifi ce, yajna. Since life was a total consecration to the realization of the transcendent Reality, the contradiction between renunciation and involve-ment in life was not felt. Th e distinction between personal God and the impersonal Absolute, be-tween bhakti and jnana, karma and yoga, and such other apparent dichotomies, which were to plague Indian spirituality in subsequent ages, had not been formulated. Th e world was not looked upon as il-lusory but as an expression of the luminous Spirit. All these features of Vedic life were embodied in the rishi ideal.

In this article we shall share a few glimpses of the extraordinary life of a Vedic rishi, whose very name fi lls our minds with awe and respect: Yajna-valkya, a great wonder, a myth personifi ed. Th e

Puranas abound in references to Yajnavalkya, and for this reason many scholars uphold the theory that there were several Yajnavalkyas of repute. Here we shall try to portray, in a nutshell, Yajnavalkya’s life and work in a unitary fashion, as we fi nd it de-scribed in various textual sources.

The Man

Yajnavalkya was the incarnation of Brahma. Cursed by Shiva, Brahma incarnated himself as Yajnavalkya.1 He was the son of Brahmabahu, who was born of the limbs of Brahma.2 Th e Yajnavalkya Samhita—a well-known book of religious law compiled by Yajnavalkya—mentions that Yājñavalkya’s father’s name was Yajñavalkya.3 Yajnavalkya learnt the yoga scriptures from Vasishtha, son of Hiranyanabha Kaushalya.4 He performed penance at Mithila.5 He learnt the science of the Self from Hiranyanabha, a king of the Raghu Dynasty and a teacher of yoga.6 Th e rituals pertaining to dana or charity, shraddha or post-funerary rites, and purifi cation of ritual ob-jects; duties of the householder, caste duties, duties of the ascetic, and the like, included in the Garuda Purana, were codifi ed by Yajnavalkya.7 Ordered by

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Mahadeva, Yajnavalkya composed the Yoga Sam-hita after observing penance in the hermitage of the great sage Upamanyu.8 Yajnavalkya used to attend the royal court of Yudhishthira and was the presid-ing priest at the Rajasuya sacrifice performed when Yudhishthira was crowned emperor.9

It is said that once, not being able to decide who among the brahmanas assembled at his horse sac-rifice was the greatest, King Janaka hit upon a de-vice. He set apart one thousand cows with a large quantity of gold tied to their horns and then said to them: ‘I have dedicated all these things to the great-est among the brahmanas. He who is the greatest among you and the most profound scholar should accept all these.’ None of the brahmanas present dared to accept the offer.

Then Yajnavalkya, who was also present on the occasion, said to his disciple: ‘Dear Samashravas, please drive these cows home.’ Samashravas com-plied. The other brahmanas were enraged. ‘How dare he call himself the best Vedic scholar among us?’ Ashwala, one of Janaka’s priests, asked Yajna-valkya, ‘Are you indeed the best Vedic scholar among us?’ Yajnavalkya replied curtly, ‘I bow to the best Vedic scholar. I just want the cows.’ Ashwala and several other brahmanas then proceeded to interrogate Yajnavalkya with abstruse questions. Yajnavalkya defeated them all by providing deeply insightful answers to their queries and then leaving them dumbfounded with such queries as ‘If some-one pulls out a tree with its root, it no more sprouts. From what tree does a mortal (human being) spring forth after having been cut off by death?’10

Yajnavalkya was one of the disciples of Vaisham-payana. Once Vaishampayana asked his disciples to perform the Brahmavadhya penance for him. Yajna-valkya offered to perform the penance all by himself. This boastful attitude annoyed Vaishampayana, and wishing to disown him, he said, ‘Return everything that you have studied under me.’ Obeying these words of his guru, Yajnavalkya returned the Yajur Veda ‘by vomiting it out’. Other sages, disguising as tittiras, partridges, partook of the Yajur Veda. From that has grown the famous Taittiriya branch. In the

meanwhile, Yajnavalkya worshipped the Sun and gained access to a fresh set of Yajur Veda mantras which were unknown to others. The sun-god was gratified by Yajnavalkya’s worship and assuming the form of a horse gave him the Yajur Vedic man-tras that were in his possession. These Yajnavalkya divided into fifteen recensions known as Vajasanis. Fifteen of his disciples—Kanva, Madhyandina, and others—mastered these and became renowned as Vajis (fleet-footed, or of the horse lineage).11 Later, Yajnavalkya compiled the Upanishads in accordance with the Vedas and explained them to King Janaka. He had a son from his senior wife Katyayani—she was also known as Kalyani—and his name was Katyayana. Yajnavalkya’s other wife was Maitreyi.12

The Devotee

Yajnavalkya was a wonderful yogi and at the same time he had profound knowledge of the ultimate Reality—Brahman. He was also a great devotee. In the introduction to his book Ramcharitmanas, the poet saint Tulsidas, one of the biographers of Sri Ramachandra, acknowledged the fact that Yajna-valkya narrated the story of Ramachandra to sage Bharadwaja. Tulsidas wrote:

I am going to explain the message inherent in the beautiful story that sage Yajnavalkya narrated to the great sage Bharadvaja; let those who are right-eous listen to that portrait with happy hearts.

Shambhu, the great deity, first composed this beautiful biographical story—Ramacarita-manasa—and was kind enough to recite it to Par-vati. Later he recited it to Kakabhushundi when he realized that Kakabhushundi was a devotee of Rama and was worthy.

Sage Yajnavalkya, in his turn, got it from Kaka-bhushundi; he sang it to sage Bharadvaja. These two, speaker and listener (Yajnavalkya and Bharad-vaja), were both of them of equal intelligence and equally fair-minded and both of them were aware of the divine plays of Hari.

These omniscient sages had direct knowledge of everything belonging to the past, present and future as if it were an emblica [sic] in the palms of their hands. The other righteous devotees of

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Hari (who knew of the divine plays and mysteries of God) listened to, recited, and explained this Character.13

The Yogi

Yajnavalkya composed a handbook on yoga philoso-phy, named Yogi-yajnavalkya, wherein he expounds the philosophy of yoga in reply to a query from his wife Gargi. Incidentally, Gargi is introduced by Yajnavalkya as his wife in this book, though in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad she is a rival questioner. Th e introductory narrative runs thus:

Th e great sage Yajnavalkya, the foremost of the sages, was omniscient. His knowledge of Reality had made his mind completely pure; he devoted himself to constant meditation on God aft er he had attained the requisite knowledge of all the branches of learning. He knew the essential philoso-phy of the Veda and Vedanta thoroughly; he was especially devoted to yogic practices. He had con-quered his senses, the emotion of anger, the love of food, and his enemies, and thus had become the favourite of the brahmanas. He was always en-gaged in practising penance and meditating upon the Absolute. Th at handsome sage used to practise his everyday prayers and worship while staying in his hermitage. Th at great and noble sage, who had had the realization of Brahman, was always sur-rounded by brahmanas. He was calm, devoted to truth, spiritually attuned to all creatures, and an appreciator of everyone’s merits. Th e only purpose of his life was to do good to others. One day when this great sage, who was endowed with such virtues, was discoursing upon the nature of the Divinity to the distinguished sages, the noble Maitreyi, who was the greatest of women, and Gargi the fore-most of those who had had the realization of God, entered the august body of sages and off ered their salutations by prostrating themselves. Th en Gargi started addressing the great sage Yajnavalkya.

Gargi said: ‘O Lord, you know the essence of all the branches of learning and are always engaged in work benefi cial to all creatures. So I pray to you to duly explicate to me the philosophy of yoga with all its ancillaries.’

Yajnavalkya, being thus asked by his wife in the midst of the assemblage, glanced at all the sages

and started speaking.Bhagavan Yajnavalkya said: ‘O Gargi, fore-

most among those who have realized Brahman, do please rise, God bless you. I am going to tell you the essence of that yoga which was explained by the Lord of Creation, Brahma, in ancient times. You should listen to what I say with a steadfast mind and complete attention. …

‘One day Brahma, the creator of the entire universe, was resting on his lotus-seat, and I ap-proached him and worshipped him with salu-tations and hymns. I asked him the very things that you are asking: “O Lord, O Master of the universe, unfold to me that great occult know-ledge, with due solemnity, of the work which will lead me to everlasting liberation.” Aft er I had said thus, Brahma, who is the Lord of Creation and the creator of his own self, was pleased to look at

In collective life, assemblies play an important part, and the art of speaking is much in demand. Sages

pray that they may ‘speak loud’ in the socio-religious assembly—Vidatha. The newly- married wife is told that she would address the Vidatha. Then there was the Sabha—the political council which required well- qualifi ed people. In the Yajur Veda there is a prayer that the prince should have for his son a sabheya yuva, a youth capable of playing his part in the Sabha or political gath-ering. … Elsewhere there is a prayer for the ideal son:‘To the man who off ers to him, God Soma gives a heroic son—who is fi t for work (karmanya), fi t for home (sadanya), fi t for the religious assembly (vidathya), fi t for the political council (sabheya), and a source of glory to his father.’

Here is the ideal for the good citizen. A man must live beyond his individual sphere and contrib-ute to collective life. Beyond the limited interests of the family and social group there was the wider interest of the state (rashtra), which was the con-cern of all enlightened people. Sages in the Yajur Veda declare: ‘We shall awake in the state, placed in the front line; vayam rashtre jagriyama purohitah.’ —Words from the Vedas, xcvi–vii

Vedic Collectivism

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me and started discoursing on the philosophy of knowledge and the philosophy of action.14

The Preceptor of JnanaSince time immemorial a particular type of In-dian mind has been very keen on discriminative dialectics. Perfection of this system resulted in the evolution of an independent system of yoga called jnana yoga. Doubts give rise to questions, questions goad one to enquiry, enquiry involves argumenta-tion, and it is through argumentation and debate that the validity of a theory is established. Thus, argumentation and dialogue constitute the driv-ing force behind the establishment of the truth of any theory. A truth is termed eternal only when it has been tested by ardent aspirants as well as crit-ics and agnostics.

For this reason we find that in India, many a time, the highest truths have been brought to light in the scriptures in the form of dialogue. Generally, such dialogues involve the preceptor, the one who knows the Truth, and the disciple who aspires after knowledge. In the Upanishads, the realization of the Self, or the Atman, and the experience of the identity of Atman and Brahman are described as the ultimate human goals. The means of achieving these goals has been stated thus: Atma va are drash-tavyah shrotavyo mantavyo nididhyasitavyo; the Self should be realized—should be heard of, reflected on, and meditated upon.15 The Vedantic sadhanas are: shravana, manana, nididhyasana—hearing, re-flection, and meditation. The Truth is to be heard of from the guru and the Shastras, to be reflected on, and meditated upon. Manana, or reflection, is the process in which this argumentation and dia-logue come in.

In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad there is an enlightening dialogue between Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi, in which profound truths are discussed. The Shastras in India enjoin that every man should give up the world when he becomes old. Yajnavalkya, having decided to renounce the householder’s life for the hermit’s, willed to di-vide his worldly possessions between his two wives.

Katyayani was satisfied with her share, but Maitreyi asked her husband to confer the knowledge which would make her immortal. Yajnavalkya said to his wife, ‘My beloved, here is all my money and my pos-sessions, I am going away.’ She replied, ‘Sir, if I had this whole earth full of wealth, would that give me immortality?’ Yajnavalkya said, ‘No, it will not. You will be rich, and that will be all; but there is no hope of immortality through wealth.’ Maitreyi continued, ‘What should I do to gain that through which I shall become immortal? Tell me that.’ Yajnavalkya was pleased. He said, ‘You have always been my beloved; you are more dear now because of this question. Come, take your seat, and I will tell you; and when you have heard, meditate upon it’ (2.4.1–4).

With a view to teaching renunciation as a means to immortality, Yajnavalkya seeks to awaken de-tachment for worldly relations, wealth, and other attachments. He drives home the truth about the Self:

Not for the sake of husband, is the husband dear, but for one’s own sake he is dear; not for the sake of wife, is the wife dear, but for one’s own sake she is dear; not for the sake of sons, are sons dear, but for one’s own sake they are dear; not for the sake of wealth, is wealth dear, but for one’s own sake it is dear; not for the sake of the brahmana, is the brahmana dear, but for one’s own sake the brahmana is dear; not for the sake of the kshatriya, is the kshatriya dear, but for one’s own sake the kshatriya is dear; not for the sake of the worlds, are the worlds dear, but for one’s own sake the worlds are dear; not for the sake of the gods, are the gods dear, but for one’s own sake the gods are dear; not for the sake of the beings, are the beings dear, but for one’s own sake the beings are dear; not for the sake of all, all is dear, but for one’s own sake all is dear. Therefore, the Self should be real-ized—should be heard of, reflected on, and medi-tated upon (2.4.5).

By the realization of the Self, through hearing, reflection, and meditation all this is known. Only thus is it realized. When these three means are com-bined, only then is true realization of the unity of Brahman accomplished, not otherwise. The word

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‘all’ emphasizes that the Self alone is dear, and noth-ing else.

What do we get then? Before us we find a curious philosophy. The statement has been made that every love is selfishness in the lowest sense of the word: because I love myself, therefore I love an-other; it cannot be. There have been philosophers in modern times who have said that self is the only motive power in the world. That is true, and yet it is wrong. But this self is but the shadow of the real Self which is behind. It appears wrong and evil because it is small. That infinite love for the Self, which is the universe, appears to be evil, appears to be small, because it appears through a small part. Even when the wife loves the husband, whether she knows it or not, she loves the husband for that Self. It is selfishness as it is manifested in the world, but that selfishness is really but a small part of the Self-ness. Whenever one loves, one has to love in and through the Self. This Self has to be known. What is the difference? Those that love the Self without knowing what It is, their love is selfish-ness. Those that love, knowing what that Self is, their love is free; they are sages.16

Yajnavalkya continues: ‘Whoever knows the brahmana as other than the Self, the brahmana deserts that being.’ Similarly, the kshatriya, the worlds, the deities, the beings, and the universe desert the one who considers them as being other than the Self. Therefore, ‘the brahmana, the kshatriya, the worlds, the gods, the beings, and all this are none but the Self, indeed’.17

Everything is the Self because everything springs from the Self, is resolved into it, and remains im-bued with it during the span of its manifestation, for nothing can be perceived apart from the Self. The Self, being pure Intelligence, makes everything intelligible.

Every time we particularize an object, we differ-entiate it from the Self. As soon as we get attached to anything in the universe, detaching it from the universe as a whole, from the Atman, there comes a reaction. With everything that we love as being ‘outside the Self ’, grief and misery ensues. If we en-joyed everything in the Self, and as the Self, there

would be no misery or reaction. This is perfect bliss. How does one apprehend this ideal? In an infinite universe, how does one take every particular object and look upon it as the Atman, without knowing the Atman?

Yajnavalkya addresses this doubt next: When a drum or a conch or a vina resounds, the particular notes or sounds cannot be distinguished from the wholeness of the great sound, for the individual notes are nothing but indistinguishable compo-nents of the overall music. Similarly, all particu-lars perceived in the waking and dream states are underpinned by the Intelligence or Consciousness which is the very nature of the Atman. So waking and dream states do not exclude the omnipresent Atman; rather, these two states merge into the all-pervading Atman.

Again, just as different streams of smokes as well as sparks and flames issue forth from a fire kindled with wet faggots, in the same way the Vedas, Upani-shads, history, mythology, arts, philosophical aph-orisms, and their explanations—all emerge from Brahman, much like breath issuing from the nos-trils (2.4.7–10).

Therefore, it may be understood that the uni-verse, at the time of its origin, as also prior to it, is nothing but Brahman. Moreover, it is not only at the time of its origin and continuance that the uni-verse, on account of its non-existence apart from pure Intelligence, is Brahman, but it is so at the time of dissolution as well. Just as the bubbles of foam have no existence apart from the water from which they are generated, even so name, form, and activity, which are derived from pure Intelligence and again merge in it, are non-existent apart from this Intelligence or Brahman. Yajnavalkya illus-trates this fact:

As the sea is the one goal of all waters, the skin of all touch, the nostrils of all smell, the tongue of all tastes, the eye of all forms, the ear of all sound; the mind of all deliberations, and the intellect of all knowledge; as the hands are the one goal of all work, the organ of generation of all enjoyment, the anus of all excretory function, the feet of all locomotion,

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and the organ of speech of all the Vedas; as a lump of salt dropped into water dissolves in it and can-not be picked up in its original form, though its salinity is found everywhere in the water, even so the great endless infinite Reality is but pure Intel-ligence. The self emerges as a separate entity on the conglomeration of the elements, and is destroyed with them. On being merged into pure Intelligence, it goes beyond the bondage of the name and form that is its individuality (2.4.11–12).

The similes tell us that existence of objects as en-tities distinct from the Reality is a delusion engen-dered by contact with the limiting adjuncts of the body and the senses. These objects will ultimately enter their cause, the great Reality, the supreme Self—signified by the sea—which is undecaying, immortal, beyond fear, pure, and homogeneous, and which is pure Intelligence: infinite, boundless, with-out a break, and devoid of the differences caused by the delusion born of ignorance. When that separate existence merges in its cause, when the differences created by ignorance are gone, the universe becomes one without a second, ‘the great Reality’.18

Swami Vivekananda remarks:

We get the idea that we have all come just like sparks from Him, and when we know Him, we go back and become one with Him again. We are the Universal.

Maitreyi became frightened, just as everywhere people become frightened. Said she, ‘Sir, here is exactly where you have thrown a delusion over me. You have frightened me by saying there will be no more gods; all individuality will be lost. There will be no one to recognise, no one to love, no one to hate. What will become of us?’19

Yajnavalkya clarifies: ‘Maitreyi, I do not mean to puzzle you. When there is duality, then one smells something, one sees something, one hears something, one speaks something, one thinks something, and one knows something. But when to a knower of the Self everything becomes the Self, then through what—and what object—does one smell or see or hear or speak or think or know? How is it possible to know the knower?’20

We know all things through the Atman. The Atman can never be the object of knowledge, nor can the knower be known; because it is in and through the Atman that we know everything.

So far the idea is that it is all One Infinite Being. That is the real individuality, when there is no more division, and no more parts; these little ideas are very low, illusive. But yet in and through every spark of the individuality is shining that In-finite. Everything is a manifestation of the Atman. How to reach that? First you make the statement, just as Yajnavalkya himself tells us: ‘The Atman is first to be heard of.’ So he stated the case; then he argued it out, and the last demonstration was how to know That, through which all knowledge is pos-sible. Then, last, it is to be meditated upon. He takes the contrast, the microcosm and the macro-cosm, and shows how they are rolling on in par-ticular lines, and how it is all beautiful. … All that is bliss, even in the lowest sense, is but the reflec-tion of Him. All that is good is His reflection, and when that reflection is a shadow, it is called evil. …

That one sweetness is manifesting itself in vari-ous ways. … There is no sweetness but He. … These ideas are very helpful to men; they are for medita-tion. For instance, meditate on the earth; think of the earth and at the same time know that we have That which is in the earth, that both are the same. Identify the body with the earth, and identify the soul with the Soul behind. Identify the air with the soul that is in the air and that is in me. They are all one, manifested in different forms. To real-ise this unity is the end and aim of all meditation, and this is what Yajnavalkya was trying to explain to Maitreyi.21

Conclusion

We have seen that Yajnavalkya, a householder, was an ardent yogi, an unflinching devotee and an in-comparable jnani. He stands as a paragon of the rishi ideal of the Vedic Age. In modern times it is Sri Ramakrishna who has revived this rishi ideal:

Though modern life with its enormous complexity and sophistication may appear to be far removed from the pastoral simplicity of the Vedic Age, so-

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ciological studies reveal that the general trend of present-day attitudes, concepts, and social orienta-tions is towards homogeneity and integrality. Sci-ence, as a search for truth, has acquired the sanctity of religion, the discovery of the unity of matter and energy has reduced the differences between the sacred and the secular and, while monks now feel compelled to get involved in social life, lay people are gaining greater awareness of the need for detach-ment, restraint, and contemplation. The modern man is in search of a holistic view of reality and an integral way of living. The ancient Vedic ideal of the ṛṣi, if adapted to the conditions of modern life, can meet the present need for a composite ideal. This was what Sri Ramakrishna did through his life.

His life was closer to that of the Vedic ṛṣis than that of the other Avatars of Hinduism, full of heroic exploits. His teaching of the harmony of religions is essentially a Vedic concept revital-ized to suit modern conditions. The Vedic sages considered the cosmos to be in a state of flux; Sri Ramakrishna regarded it as the līlā of the Di-vine Mother. Through his doctrine of vijñāna, Sri Ramakrishna has recaptured the integral vision of the Vedic seers who saw divinity shining through every object in the universe.22

Sri Ramakrishna’s consort, the Holy Mother Sarada Devi, too lived an intense spiritual life in the midst of the din and bustle of household life, in order to restore the spirit of the rishi ideal in this age. Her spirit of detachment was remarkable. Once a rich merchant named Lakshminarayan re-quested Sri Ramakrishna to accept a sum of rupees ten thousand for his personal use. Sri Ramakrishna, of course, would not accept any money. So he asked the Holy Mother if she would accept the same. On hearing this suggestion, Sri Sarada Devi immedi-ately replied: ‘How can that be? The money can’t be accepted. If I receive it, it will be as good as you receiving it; for if I take it, I shall spend it on you; and hence it will amount to your own acceptance. People respect you for your renunciation; therefore the money can never be accepted.’

Sister Nivedita observed:

In her [Sri Sarada Devi], one sees realized that

wisdom and sweetness to which the simplest of women may attain. And yet, to myself the stateli-ness of her courtesy and her great open mind are almost as wonderful as her sainthood. I have never known her hesitate, in giving utterance to large and generous judgement, however new or com-plex might be the question put before her. Her life is one long stillness of prayer. Her whole ex-perience is of theocratic civilization. Yet she rises to the height of every situation.23

Swami Vivekananda believed that ‘without Shakti (Power) there is no regeneration for the world. … Mother [Sri Sarada Devi] has been born to revive that wonderful Shakti in India; and making her the nucleus once more will Gargis and Maitreyis be born into the world.’ 24 P

References 1. Skanda Purana,‘NagarKhanda’,129. 2. Vayu Purana,61. 3. YajnavalkyaSamhita,1. 4. Vayu Purana,88. 5. Skanda Purana,‘RevaKhanda’,42. 6. Bhagavata,9.12. 7. Garuda Purana,93.106. 8. Kurma Purana,25. 9. Mahabharata,‘SabhaParva’,4.32.10. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,3.1–9.11. Bhagavata,12.6;Vishnu Purana,3.5;Vayu Purana,

60–1.12. Skanda Purana,‘NagarKhanda’,130.13. The Rāmāyaṇa of Tulsidās,trans.AGAtkins(New

Delhi:HindustanTimes,1954),1.28.14. Yogi-Yājñavalkya, ed. Upendranath Mukhopa-

dhyaya(Kolkata:Basumati),1–5.15. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,4.5.6.16. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,9vols

(Calcutta:AdvaitaAshrama,1–8,1989;9,1997),2.417.

17. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,2.4.6.18. SeeTheBṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad,trans.Swami

Madhavananda (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama,2004),256.

19. Complete Works,2.419.20. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,2.4.13–14.21. Complete Works,2.419–22.22. Prabuddha Bharata,91/12(December1986),498–9.23. SisterNivedita, The Master as I Saw Him (Kolkata:

Udbodhan,2007),122.24. Complete Works,7.484.


The Kanyā Tejasvinī of Indian CultureDr Prema Nandakumar

In his letter dated 8 March 1899 to Romesh Chunder Dutt, Alfred Wallace discusses the Mahabharata, and writes: ‘The story of Savitri

is the gem of the whole poem, and I cannot recall anything in poetry more beautiful, or any higher teaching as to the sanctity of love and marriage. We have really not advanced one step beyond these old-world people in our ethical standards.’1

Romesh Chunder Dutt himself included Savi-tri’s tale in his verse rendering of Vyasa’s epic. When Vyasa wrote the ‘Pativrata Upakhyana’ for the Mahabharata it was already a well-known legend. Rishi Markandeya recounts the ‘ancient’ story to Yudhishthira, his brothers, and Draupadi when they are in the forest. Hence there must have been some earlier versions too. After Vyasa, the tale of Savitri and Satyavan has been retold in numerous ways. What is most astonishing is that while latter-day writers have taken infinite liberties with the char-acters of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, they have presented Savitri as the same perfect person-ality whom Vyasa has hailed as kanyā tejasvinī, the heroic virgin. Be it a folk narrative or an epic struc-ture, Savitri comes through as a luminescent power, the young princess who won back her husband’s life from Yama by her sheer goodness and tapasya.

Sri Aurobindo writes in the ‘Author’s Note’ to his Savitri that the tale is one of the symbolic myths found in the Vedic cycle:

The tale of Satyavan and Savitri is recited in the Mahabharata as a story of conjugal love conquer-ing death. But this legend is, as shown by many features of the human tale, one of the many sym-bolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun,

goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; Ashwapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the im-mortal planes; Dyumatsena, Lord of the Shining Hosts, father of Satyavan, is the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision, and through that loss its kingdom of glory. Still this is not a mere allegory, the characters are not personified qualities, but incarnations or emana-tions of living and conscious Forces with whom we can enter into concrete touch, and they take human bodies in order to help man and show him the way from his mortal state to a divine con-sciousness and immortal life.2

By the time we come to Vyasa, we have left behind the Upanishadic Age as well. The legend as recounted in the Itihasa is well known. Rishi Markandeya goes to meet Yudhishthira and his brothers in the forest. They welcome him, speak to him of the indignities suffered by their queen, and ask whether he has ever seen a pativratā—a virtu-ous wife—as wonderful as Draupadi. Immediately, the rishi tells them of Savitri. The tale spans seven cantos of the ‘Vana Parva’ in the Mahabharata.

Pativratā Savitri

Ashwapati, the king of the Madra country, is pious, virtuous, and a protector of his people. He has only one sorrow—no child has been born to him to con-tinue his line. Therefore he performs tapasya for eighteen years and prays to goddess Savitri for the boon of a child. The goddess appears and grants his wish: ‘You will soon have a radiantly beautiful daughter, kanyā tejasvinī.’ When the girl child is born, Ashwapati names her Savitri. She grows up to be a divine damsel. Since she is very brilliant, no


27The Kanyā Tejasvinī of Indian Culturesuitor dares to ask for her hand.

One day she approaches Ashwapati with the prasada of her puja, and he, feeling that the time has come for her to find a bridegroom, asks her—who looks like Goddess Lakshmi, śrīriva rūpiṇī—to go and choose her husband: ‘Tell me then of him whom you would choose and after giving due con-sideration to it, I shall make the marriage proposal; choose him whom you will acceptably desire.’3

According to Sri Aurobindo, the words must have sounded like a mantra to Savitri:

As when the Mantra sinks in Yoga’s ear, Its message enters stirring the blind brain And keeps in the dim ignorant cells its sound; The hearer understands a form of words And, musing on the index thought it holds, He strives to read it with the labouring mind, But finds bright hints, not the embodied truth: Then, falling silent in himself to know He meets the deeper listening of his soul: The Word repeats itself in rhythmic strains: Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self Are seized unalterably and he endures An ecstasy and an immortal change.4

Savitri goes out on her quest. When she returns home after some time, she finds Rishi Narada con-versing with her parents. Asked by the king, she says that she has chosen Satyavan, the son of the exiled and blind king Dyumatsena of Shalwa. Narada ex-claims that the choice is a mistake, though Satyavan is a fine young man. Asked to explain himself, the sage says that Satyavan has only one more year to live. Ashwapati asks Savitri to reconsider her choice, but she is firm: ‘May he be of a short life or a long life, with virtuous qualities or else without them; I have chosen him as my husband and I shall choose not again. By perception does one first come to a certain conclusion, and then one holds it by speech; only afterwards is it put into action. That perception of mine for me is the one single authority here.’5

Finding her unyielding, Narada tells Ashwapati to go ahead with the marriage and suggests that all would be well. Ashwapati obtains Dyumatsena’s permission, and the marriage is celebrated. After

Ashwapati and his entourage return to Madra, Savitri settles down to the simple and hard life of the forest. Placing aside her ornaments and rich gar-ments, she looks after her parents-in-law and hus-band with great devotion and care. Thus she wins the love and respect of her family and others who are living in the hermitage.

Three days prior to the dire end foretold by Narada, Savitri performs the difficult tri-rātra vrata, the penance of three nights. She fasts for three days, at the end of which she offers oblations to the fire, salutes the elders of the hermitage, and obtains their blessings. According to Vyasa she is now dhyāna-yoga-parāyaṇā, one who has entered the yoga of meditation. On the fated day she accompanies Satyavan to collect firewood from the forest. When he falls down in a swoon, she finds a god-like person near her. She salutes him and wants to know who he is. Her reaction is just what it should be. Even in that dire moment, she stands up with folded hands, kṛtānjali, salutes the stranger, and says: ‘I take you to be some noble god as you have a form other than the human; if it pleases you, pray tell me who you are and what you propose to do, O god!’

Yama compliments her as one who is devoted to her husband and is full of tapasya—pativratāsi sāvitri tathaiva ca tapo’nvitā—and tells her that he has come to take the life of Satyavan away. He instructs her to return to her people. But Savitri has performed her vrata well: she is able to follow him. She tells Yama that she considers him a friend because they have walked seven steps together and utters the first of her righteous statements, dharma-vacanas.

The dharma-vacanas make a compendium for faultless living: One must have self-discipline to achieve anything worthwhile. Those who do not have self-possession cannot follow dharma. Fol-lowing one’s dharma is the only excellent way of life. Sat-sanga, company of the righteous, is most important for achieving a blameless life. One must not have malice towards anyone nor hurt anyone in thought or deed. One must always give in char-ity. One should be kind even to an enemy. Men put their trust in sages more than in themselves, for

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sages never fail to help. Sages do not have ill will or selfishness and never regret the good they have done. Hence sages are the protectors of the world.

At the conclusion of each dharma-vacana, Yama expresses his joy—‘You speak as a reasonable per-son; your words are like water to a thirsty man’, and so on—and grants her boons. He is delighted when she says finally that the sages protect the world. He says: ‘O devoted and chaste lady, the more in well-adorned verses, full of great significance and agree-able to perception, you speak of the noble things conformable to the dharma, the more does my ex-cellent devotion for you increase; therefore, choose yet another but appropriate boon from me.’

Savitri takes the cue and asks for the life of Satyavan. Yama grants Satyavan’s life and blesses them both with long life and happiness. The way in which Savitri gently guides Satyavan back to the her-mitage is described beautifully by Vyasa. Rishi Mar-kandeya concludes his recital with a blessing: ‘That is how Savitri had saved and upraised herself, her father and mother, her father-in-law and mother-in-law, and extricated the whole house of her husband from calamity. The fortune-bringer Draupadi, full of noble qualities, will also, like Savitri, high-born and chaste, carry you all across to the further shore.’

The Enduring Savitri

The Puranic literature which came after the Upani-shadic Age continued to retell the legend of Savitri. For instance, the Padma Purana (chapters 208–14) follows Vyasa in the main, with some delight-ful changes. Manu asks Bhagavan Matsya about great pativratās, and the Lord speaks of Savitri: ‘In olden days, Ashwapati of the Sakala race ruled over Madra Desha. He had no sons. On the advice of good brahmanas, he began worshipping Goddess Savitri. He offered white lotuses in his homa, in the company of thousands of brahmanas. After ten months, on a caturthi day, the goddess appeared before Ashwapati.’6

Savitri is born to Queen Malati and grows up into a charming girl. At the appropriate time, Ashwapati arranges her marriage with Satyavan—

despite Narada’s prophecy. When the year comes to a close, Savitri undertakes the tri-rātra vow. Savitri and Satyavan go into the forest on the fatal day. A canto of thirty-five verses is devoted to the wander-ings of Savitri and Satyavan in the forest, watch-ing the glories of nature. Satyavan points to the mango tree, the aśoka, and the kiṁśuka, which are in full blossom. He waxes eloquent, speaking about the creepers that were closing in on the footpath, the sound of bees—like Cupid readying his bow and arrow ‘to strike at couples like us’—and how ‘the forest is beautiful like you; vibhāti cārutilake tvāmivaiṣā vanasthalī ’. He also tells her of the lov-ing couples around—the koels, bees, crows, lions, tigers, deer, elephants, cakravākas—quite a list!

Satyavan then says that he has collected fruits, and she, flowers—but what about wood, indhana? So she should now sit on the bank of a tarn while he cuts down a tree. She assents but asks him to be within her sight. After a little while, Satyavan tells her that he has a terrible headache and feels as if he is entering a dense darkness. He places his head on her lap and goes to sleep. Yama now appears and takes away the ‘thumb-sized’ life of Satyavan. Savitri follows him and speaks sweetly: ‘By the wor-ship of mother this world is gained, by worshipping father the middle world, and by worshipping one’s teacher Brahmaloka is gained. … He who serves all these three has followed all dharmas. He who does not, loses the fruit of his good deeds. As long as these three are alive, there is no need to do any other good deed. One must serve them to please them and make them comfortable.’

Vyasa’s upākhyāna is followed diligently from now on, and Yama gives back Satyavan’s life happily, for Savitri is the very image of dharma. He blesses them that they would live together happily for five hundred years.

While the Puranas recorded the story of Savitri in noble Sanskrit, the legend continued to be a fa-vourite with the common populace. Savitri praises family life in her conversation with Yama, and lives as an ideal wife and daughter-in-law. Thus her story underlines the importance of the family unit for


29Th e Kanyā Tejasvinī of Indian Culturethe sustenance of dharma in Indian society. Indian women continue to perform an annual vrata to re-mind themselves of the power of Savitri. Among traditional recitations inspired by the ideal of fam-ily life and sung on the occasion of Savitri vrata is Savitri Padam, in simple colloquial Tamil. It was fi rst published in book form seventy years ago by Sister Subbulakshmi, the renowned social worker of Madras, though it was composed perhaps a couple of centuries earlier. Subbulakshmi had been widowed as a child, and her life’s work lay in serving widowed and abandoned girls, and yet she believed in this story. For she realized that what is important about the legend is the soul-strength it imparts. She says: ‘May everyone recite this powerful work and gain the grace of the Divine Mother.’

Th e Savitri story in this poem gives one the im-pression that Ashwapati’s was an ordinary middle-class home where women spend much of their time in the kitchen, clean the altar, decorate it with fl owers and kolam (drawings with rice and lime powder), and spread off erings of cooked food like jaggery cakes, sesamum laddus, and modakams. Th ere is a child-like innocence and unswerving faith in this tradition which comes through pleasantly as one listens to the recital.

Th ough Savitri Padam follows Vyasa closely, the descriptions are all home-made. Th e oral narrative is practical in its approach, since everyday life for the commoner provides little leisure for following the way of contemplation. Th e anonymous author takes great pleasure in detailing the rituals of Savi-tri’s wedding, which opens with the breaking of three hundred coconuts in off ering to Ganesha. Th e guardian thread is tied to Savitri’s hand:

Th e parrot child was bathed in turmeric waterAnd decorated: a sindur on her broad forehead;Th e tresses plaited with hanging pendant for the end;Th e slim-waisted Savitri was rubbed with rose-

water from the bottle, and cool sandal-paste.

While Satyavan puts on the dress of a pilgrim for ‘pilgrimage to Kashi’ (a secular ritual in brahmana marriages), Ashwapati off ers his daughter’s hand and presently the bride and groom rock gently in

the swing. Ashwapati then washes Satyavan’s feet. Savitri is helped to wear the wedding sari in the tra-ditional way. Satyavan ties the sacred thread around her neck and performs homa. It is a four-day wed-ding complete with grand feasts.

While in the forest, a few days prior to the fore-told event, Savitri performs gaurī vrata, remaining silent for three days while meditating on Parvati. When Satyavan swoons in the forest and Yama appears, Savitri speaks loft y thoughts. Th ere is no trace of fear in her words, nor is Yama described in terms of terror. We recognize the presence of two great souls. Th is encounter, conveyed in simple, faith-laden words, must have given the countless men and women who have listened to the passage the strength of mind to cast off the fear of death. Th is is one of the innumerable instances through the centuries in which traditional tales become sub-lime tools of education. Sister Subbulakshmi was well aware of this angle and wrote in the introduc-tion to her Tamil translation of the Bhagavadgita:

Our Puranas have a two-fold signifi cance: the internal and the external; this double approach makes them accessible to all people—people who are in diff erent states of consciousness. If the high truths of Hindu religion were written openly, many people would miss the deep ideas imbedded therein. But when an idea is presented as a story, fi rst it is read and enjoyed, and as one’s mind slowly matures, one begins to seek the truth of the tale.

Yama, the god of Death · In the Rig Veda he [Yama] seems to have been originally a form of the Sun—even as late as the Isha Upanishad we fi nd the name used as an appellation of the Sun—and then one of the twin children of the wide-shining Lord of Truth. He is the guardian of dharma, the law of the Truth, satyadharma, which is the condition of immortality, and therefore himself the guard-ian of immortality. His world is Swar, the world of immor-tality, amrite loke akshite. … Yama and the ancient Fathers have discovered the path to that world which is a pasture of the Cows whence the enemy cannot bear away the radiant herds. —Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, 221

Confronting Yama

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The Tale Retold Yet Again

In more recent times, we have Sri Aurobindo’s mag-nifi cent recreation of the Savitri legend as an epic in English. Th e great yogi had been educated in England, but when he returned to India in 1893 to teach at the Maharajah’s College at Baroda, he was drawn to Indian tradition in a big way. He realized that just when the English-educated Indians had been hypnotized by Britain’s ways and had begun to ape the West, a spiritual luminary appeared and Indian heritage was saved for all time:

British rule, Britain’s civilising mission in India has been the record success in history in the hypnosis of a nation. It persuaded us to live in a death of the will and its activities, taking a series of hallu-cinations for real things and creating in ourselves the condition of morbid weakness the hypnotist

desired, until the Master of a mightier hypnosis [Swami Vivekananda] laid His fi nger on India’s eyes and cried, ‘Awake’. Th en only the spell was broken, the slumbering mind realised itself and the dead soul lived again.7

Sri Aurobindo now began writing extensively on Indian culture—translating from Indian clas-sics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and composing narrative poems on the Indian legends of Ruru and Pramadvara, Urvashi, and Baji Prabhu, a lieutenant of Chhatrapati Shivaji. His narrative poems on Ulupi, Nala, and Chitrangada were left unfi nished as he was imprisoned for taking part in the Indian independence movement. Among many of his services for projecting India’s Sanatana Dharma to the elite through his peerless English style is the epic Savitri.

Sri Aurobindo began work on the epic when he was a professor in Baroda, but the work was stalled on his arrest for his activities in the Indian independence movement. Aft er he settled down in Pondicherry in 1910, he returned to the work, expanding Vyasa’s original legend into a human document containing twenty-four thousand lines of crystalline blank verse.

Sri Aurobindo admired Savitri as a heroine who did not take recourse to tears even when faced with the grim challenge of Death. He has transformed Vyasa’s story in the light of his own philosophy of evolution and has instituted three major changes while handling Vyasa’s tale. Th e fi rst major change deals with the tapasya of eighteen years undertaken by Ashwapati for getting a daughter. Sri Aurobindo has developed it as Ashwapati’s dhyana yoga or yoga of meditation, which takes us through many worlds of yogic experience. Th e steps in evolution, the many subtle worlds which lie beyond our sheerly physical vision, and the future possibilities are all dealt with in great detail.

As if from Matter’s plinth and viewless baseTo a top as viewless, a carved sea of worldsClimbing with foam-maned waves to the SupremeAscended towards breadths immeasurable;It hoped to soar into the Ineff able’s reign:

DH

UR

AN

DH

AR

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31 The Kanyā Tejasvinī of Indian CultureA hundred levels raised it to the Unknown.So it towered up to heights intangibleAnd disappeared in the hushed conscious VastAs climbs a storeyed temple-tower to heavenBuilt by the aspiring soul of man to liveNear to his dream of the Invisible.8

Death has many faces; humanity’s nescience is also Death and has to be overcome. This nescience can take many forms. It could be an arrogant poli-tician rousing the rabble:

A bull-throat bellowed with its brazen tongue; Its hard and shameless clamour filling space And threatening all who dared to listen to truth Claimed the monopoly of the battered ear; A deafened acquiescence gave its vote, And braggart dogmas shouted in the night Kept for the fallen soul once deemed a god The pride of its abysmal absolute (2.7).

Ashwapati’s yoga grants him a vision of the Di-vine Mother, and he prays to her for an incarnation to help transform life on earth into a life divine. She assures him of such a manifestation:

O strong forerunner, I have heard thy cry. One shall descend and break the iron Law, Change Nature’s doom by the lone Spirit’s power. A limitless Mind that can contain the world, A sweet and violent heart of ardent calms Moved by the passions of the gods shall come. All mights and greatnesses shall join in her; Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth, Delight shall sleep in the cloud-net of her hair, And in her body as on his homing tree Immortal Love shall beat his glorious wings (3.4).

The second major change effected by Sri Au-robindo is the conversion of the tri-rātra vrata of Savitri into the ‘Book of Yoga’. There is a brilliant image of Kundalini Yoga as Savitri draws close to the conclusion of her yoga:

Out of the Inconscient’s soulless mindless NightA flaming serpent rose released from sleep.It rose billowing its coils and stood erectAnd climbing mightily stormily on its way

It touched her centres with its flaming mouth:As if a fiery kiss had broken their sleep,They bloomed and laughed surcharged with light

and bliss;Then at the crown it joined the Eternal’s space.In the flower of the head, in the flower of

Matter’s base,In each divine stronghold and Nature-knotIt held together the mystic stream which joinsThe viewless summits with the unseen depths,The string of forts that make the frail defenceSafeguarding us against the enormous world,Our lines of self-expression in its Vast.An image sat of the original PowerWearing the mighty Mother’s form and face (7.5).

Savitri gains the universal Consciousness that helps her face Death on that fateful day in the for-est. The third great transformation effected by Sri Aurobindo is the manner in which the original Savitri-Yama conversation becomes a prolonged ar-gument between Savitri and Death. Sri Aurobindo never uses the term ‘Yama’ for Death. Death here is Inconscience, Nescience, the great Negative. The young wife and the pitiless godhead argue through symbolic worlds of eternal night and double twi-light. Savitri will not be tempted by any boons, and when she evokes the cosmic image of a tremendous blaze, Death is eaten away by Light.

In the final turn of the epic, Savitri finds that Death is but another facet of the Supreme. When the Supreme welcomes her to live in ananda, bliss, for ever in the heavens, she prefers to get back to the earth with all its tribulations:

In vain thou temptst with solitary blissTwo spirits saved out of a suffering world;My soul and his indissolubly linkedIn the one task for which our lives were bornTo raise the world to God in deathless Light,To bring God down to the world on earth we came,To change the earthly life to life divine.I keep my will to save the world and man (11.1).

From the Supreme she receives five boons—a divine Love, a divine Calm, a divine Oneness, a divine Energy and a divine Embrace—to help her

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and Satyavan as they return to the earth to help hu-mankind enter a great future. What is the core of Savitri’s tapasya that gave her the strength of mind to face Death itself ? We get the answer when she simply says to the rishis who question her after the couple return safely to the hermitage:

Awakened to the meaning of my heart That to feel love and oneness is to live And this the magic of our golden change Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage (12).

Savitri contains the meditations and visions of a great yogi of our times who has pondered deeply the significance of the original legend. It is dif-ficult to summarize its content in a short space, but K R Srinivasa Iyengar, who spent a lifetime studying the epic, has given some idea about the philosophical and spiritual treasures that are con-tained in it:

Poetry, meditation, exegesis; these are the move-ments of the same Consciousness, efflorescence of the same Revelation. The Divine Zenith, the Inconscient Nadir, the whole realm between: the way down, the way up, the whole stairway: the linking up of the extremities, the One Con-sciousness dividing only to unite again: the Mystery and Miracle of Creation, the Fall, the Ascension—all, all are suggested, all are invoked, all are shown in action in this unique and won-derful poem.9

The legend of Savitri has also been retold in Eng-lish by other well-known poets like Romesh Chun-der Dutt and Toru Dutt. The young Toru, who was hardly twenty when she wrote ‘The Ballad of Savitri’, admires the freedom enjoyed by women in ancient India:

In those far-off primeval days Fair India’s daughters were not pent In closed zenanas. On her ways Savitri at her pleasure went Whither she chose, and hour by hour With young companions of her age, She roamed the woods for fruit or flower, Or loitered in some hermitage,

For to the Munis gray and old Her presence was as sunshine glad, They taught her wonders manifold And gave her of the best they had.10With such an introduction, we find it quite nat-

ural that Savitri grows up to be a ‘tapo’nvitā ’ and ‘dhyāna-yoga-parāyaṇā’ as in Vyasa’s tale. There is a charming conclusion marking the utter faith of the Indian people in the glory and good of Savi-tri’s name:

As for Savitri, to this day Her name is named, when couples wed, And to the bride the parents say, Be thou like her, in heart and head (81).

Though today we may be assaulted by a million temptations of the degrading culture of consumer-ism, still—whether it is the French poet Verlaine or the trans-creator Purushottama Lal, Savitri re-mains unchanged—the kanyā tejasvinī of Vyasa, the brilliance of Indian womanhood which con-tinues to inspire and shape our thoughts. Savitri’s faith, purity, simplicity, compassion, and love are as armour for us as we move forward in the twenty-first century. P

References 1. JNGupta,Life and Works of Romesh Chunder Dutt

(London:Dent,1911),268. 2. SriAurobindo,Savitri(Pondicherry:Aurobindo

Ashram, 1954); <http://www.savitribysriauro-bindo.com/completeText.htm>accessedon15July2008.

3. AlltranslationsfromVyasainthisessayarebyRYDeshpande.

4. Savitri,4.3. 5. SriAurobindo,Vyasa’s Savitri(Pondicherry:Sri

Aurobindo International Centre of Education,1996),20.

6. TranslationsfromPadma Puranaaretheauthor’s. 7. Articlewrittenin1906;Sri Aurobindo Archives and

Research(April,1978),14. 8. Savitri,2.1. 9. Perspectives of Savitri,ed.RYDeshpande(Pon-

dicherry:Aurobharati,2002),1.311.10. ToruDutt, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindu-

stan (Allahabad:Kitabistan,1941),38.


May We All Be NachiketasSwami Divyasukhananda

In the Upanishads we find abstract ideas eluci-dated through anecdotes and illustrative exam-ples that make these texts a living philosophy

and a great source of spiritual inspiration. The ab-sorbing and illuminating dialogue between Yama and Nachiketa in the Katha Upanishad is one such narrative. This Upanishad boldly announces that only a seeker endowed with inner discipline can enter into the spiritual realm. The boy Nachiketa, the very embodiment of inner discipline, and Yama, the master of Self-knowledge who has pierced the mystery of life and death—the two main protago-nists of this Upanishad—exemplify this truth.

The story of Yama and Nachiketa is also narrated in a skeletal form in the Rig Veda.1 However, it is in the Katha Upanishad that the narrative has the distinctive flavour of a character-building spiritual philosophy. This Upanishad aims at illumining our intellects, taking us away from the finite towards the infinite, from the darkness of self-forgetfulness to the light of awareness, from death to immortality.

Swami Vivekananda had great love for Nachi-keta. He said: ‘Have faith, as Nachiketa. At the time of his father’s sacrifice, faith came unto Nachiketa; ay, I wish that faith would come to each of you.’2

The Story of Nachiketa

In days of yore, Vajashravasa, desirous of the re-wards of heaven, performed the Vishvajit sacrifice. This sacrifice demands that the performer give away all his possessions. Vajashravasa had a son named Nachiketa. He noticed the kind of gifts his father was giving: the cows presented to the assembled brahmanas were practically at the verge of death—‘they had drunk water for the last time, eaten their last meal, been drained of all milk, and had turned barren’.3 Seeing the quality of the presents, Nachi-

keta, who was but a kumāra, a mere boy, was pos-sessed by śraddhā, faith. Nachiketa realized that such gifts would only lead the performer of the sacrifice ‘to worlds devoid of joy and happiness’. Moreover, Nachiketa thought: ‘The evil result thus accruing to my father as a consequence of the im-perfect sacrifice should be erased by me, who am a good son, by perfecting the sacrifice even through an offering of myself. ’ So he approached his father and said, ‘Father, whom will you offer me to?’ Hav-ing been ignored by his father, he repeated his ques-tion a second time, and then a third time. Annoyed, his father said, ‘Unto death will I offer you.’ To hon-our his father’s words, Nachiketa went to the abode of Death, and stayed there without food for three days, as Yama, Death, was away. On return, Yama apologized for the delay in attending to his guest, and offered Nachiketa three boons for each of the three nights he had spent unattended.

As first boon, Nachiketa asked that his father Gautama be relieved of anxiety for him, become free of anger towards him, and recognize him and talk to him on his return from Yama’s abode. As second boon, Nachiketa asked for the knowledge of the sacrifice that leads to heaven. These boons were immediately granted by Yama. Finally, as the last boon, Nachiketa asked for the knowledge of the Self, Atman. At first, Yama was not eager to impart this knowledge and tried to tempt Nachiketa with offers of material pleasure, but seeing Nachiketa’s firm determination and intense longing, he yielded. Obtaining the knowledge of the Atman, Nachiketa overcame all desire and ignorance and became free.

Nachiketa’s Character

In Nachiketa’s personality we witness several re-markable qualities which make him fit for the

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realization of the Atman. Below we explore some of these character-traits that make Nachiketa an example worthy of emulation.

Śraddhā · This is an attitude of faith, trust, or confidence in truth, righteousness, holy people, and the scriptures. Śraddhā is the foremost of the many positive qualities observed in Nachiketa’s character.

Śraddhā in Himself : When Vajashravasa, in a fit of anger, declared that he was handing Nachi-keta over to Death, the child wondered: ‘Among many I rank as the foremost; among many I rank as one belonging to the middling, [but certainly I am never the last]. What purpose of Death does my father wish to achieve today through me?’(1.1.5). It is evident that even as a boy, Nachiketa had great faith in himself and never thought that he might be the worst among many, as Shankaracharya pointed out. This confidence eventually led to his meet-ing with Yama. This śraddhā, Swami Vivekananda highlights, ‘is the keynote of the Veda and Ved-anta—the Shraddha which emboldened Nachiketa to face Yama and question him, through which Shraddha this world moves’.4

Śraddhā in the Scriptures: Nachiketa was observ-ing the distribution of gifts to the assembled brah-manas. He felt that his father ought to be making worthier offerings in his sacrifice as he had faith in the truths propounded by the scriptures. Nachiketa judged the incident in the light of that faith and came forward to question his father.

Śraddhā in the Teacher: While asking the third boon, Nachiketa said: ‘Some say of a dead man, “He is gone”; others, “He is still living”. You are Yama, Death; you know the truth. Do tell me.’ Yama re-plied: ‘Even the gods entertained doubts about this subject in days of yore; being subtle, the Self is not easily comprehended. Do not press me, choose an-other boon.’5 Reacting to these words with śraddhā Nachiketa said: ‘Vaktā cāsya tvādṛganyo na labhyo, nānyo varastulya etasya kaścit; another exponent of this subject like you is not to be had, and no other boon is comparable to this’ (1.1.22). Not only does this show Nachiketa’s unswerving faith in Yama

as a teacher of brahma-vidyā, the knowledge of Brahman, it also shows his firm resolve about ac-quiring this knowledge. That is why he received the knowledge of the Self from Yama and became illumined.

Śraddhā in the Ancestors and the Holy: Nachi-keta’s father was remorseful for his harsh behaviour towards his son. But, at this critical juncture, Nachi-keta urged his father to remember the honest ways of their forefathers and other holy people and not go back on his word. Nachiketa’s views regarding the tradition of his ancestors and the holy are not only worth noting, but especially demand practice in today’s world.

Truthfulness · By reminding his father of the ways of their ancestors, Nachiketa ensured that he did not deviate from truth even if that meant losing his son. ‘Satyameva jayate nānṛtam; truth alone prevails, not untruth,’ says the Mundaka Upanishad, and Nachiketa had no doubt about this.6 When he arrived at Yama’s abode, the latter was not at home. For three days Nachiketa went without food, wait-ing for Yama. He was willing to pay any price for the sake of truth.

Discrimination and Dispassion · Nachiketa wished to acquire the knowledge of the Self. Yama was not keen to grant this request and tried to tempt Nachiketa in various ways: ‘Ask for sons and grandsons who shall live a hundred years; partake freely of cattle, elephant, horses, and gold; choose a vast dominion on earth, and live as many years as you wish. … Whatever desires are difficult to satisfy in this world of mortals, choose them as you wish: these fair maidens, with their chariots and musical instruments—men cannot obtain them. I give them to you and they shall wait upon you. But do not ask me about death.’ 7 Nachiketa was discrimination and renunciation personified, and rejected all these offers: ‘O Death, these will endure only till the mor-row; besides, they exhaust the vigour of the senses. Even the longest life is short indeed; so keep your horses, dances, and songs for yourself ’ (1.1.26).

Renunciation is the sine qua non of Self- knowledge. Nachiketa proved that he was steadfast


in his renunciation. Yama had to agree: ‘I consider you fi t for knowledge (of the Self )’ (1.2.4). Swami Vivekananda remarks: ‘Note here the conditions of imparting the truth. First, the purity—a boy, a pure, unclouded soul, asking the secret of the uni-verse. Second, that he must take truth for truth’s sake alone.’8

Concentration and Retentivity · While grant-ing the second boon, Yama told Nachiketa about the sacrifi cial fi re that takes one to heaven and the type and arrangement of bricks for the sacrifi cial altar. Such was Nachiketa’s concentration and re-tentivity that, to Yama’s utter surprise, he not only grasped the signifi cance of the ritual, but also re-peated verbatim the instructions he had received. A delighted Yama named the ritual aft er Nachiketa and also gave him a brilliant necklace.

Freedom fr om Pride · Th e fact that he could forego food for three days at Yama’s place shows Nachiketa’s capacity for great physical endurance. Moreover, he allows neither pride of lineage nor intellectual capabilities to disturb his innate mod-esty and mental equipoise even when he was made to wait without reception or food. Th is modesty is also seen in the way he questions his father’s at-titude: ‘Father, whom will you off er me to?’ Th e Vishvajit sacrifi ce demands the off ering of all pos-sessions, and Nachiketa saw himself as one of his father’s possessions. He was also as courteous as ever in his rejection of Yama’s off ers: ‘Wealth can never make a person happy. Moreover, since I have seen you, I shall certainly obtain wealth; I shall also live as long as you rule. So, the boon that I have asked alone is worth praying for.’9

Pragmatism · While asking the three boons, Nachiketa asked for Self-knowledge last. He sought peace of mind for his father and the knowledge of an important rite before inquiring about the ulti-mate Truth. Th is is a refl ection of the pragmatic bent of Nachiketa’s mind. It also reminds us that preparatory discipline is necessary for the realiza-tion of the Atman.

Interestingly, Nachiketa asked the fi rst boon with the fi rm conviction that he would go back to

his father, even though he was in the clutches of Death! Th is is indicative of both his śraddhā and his pragmatism.

Ideals and ideologies are vital driving forces that propel human life and dictate human achievements. Th us, when one is fi rmly convinced about the value of truthfulness in thought, word, and deed, one’s behaviour refl ects this central tune of life. Accord-ing to the Vedic sages, control of mind was the fun-damental principle behind all learning. Living with their gurus, students learnt to have strong, dispas-sionate, pure, and concentrated minds, full of sub-lime thoughts. A person like Nachiketa fulfi ls the expectations of the Vedic sages as well as of teach-ers of all time.

It is generally emphasized that the outcome of any piece of knowledge should be judged by what students are able to do with it, and not merely by the fact of their possessing it. Nachiketa’s under-standing of scriptural injunctions was not merely a theoretical conception—it was a practical guide to right living. He even saw to it that his father’s

Yama greets Nachiketa

PR

IYA

NA

TH

SIN

HA

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sacrifi cial practices were set in proper order, so that he could obtain the results he desired.

The Illumined Soul

Life is a journey to fulfi lment. Th e attainment de-pends upon the path one treads. Th e way of preyas, the path of profi t and pleasure is fraught with ten-sion, sorrow, and fear. Th e way of śreyas, the path of knowledge and illumination, provides an op-portunity for freedom from all bondage—a rare privilege, given only to humans. Human minds are bewitched by the external glitter of objects and lose the discriminative faculty that helps recognize the purpose of life. Very few indeed choose the śreyas over the preyas. It is only the person with a profound discrimination that strives for Self- knowledge as the goal of life. Hence, Yama was delighted when he saw that Nachiketa was not de-luded by the preyas and chose the path of śreyas instead.

Most people are mesmerized by the aff airs of the world and cannot think beyond the world in which they live. So they remain ignorant of the Self. Even among those who are fortunate enough to hear about the Self, all cannot grasp the idea. When a fi t disciple comes in contact with a great teacher, he or she has the chance of acquiring the knowledge of the Self through proper instruction and guidance.

Th e process has been likened to the lighting of one candle with another. Nachiketa is one such pure and capable student.

Nachiketa’s doubts regarding existence beyond death were removed through spiritual illumination. Th is was possible because of his burning faith in the scriptures and in his teacher, Yama. Th e Katha Upa-nishad tells us that ‘Having received the knowledge imparted by Yama, together with the entire process of yoga, Nachiketa became free from virtue and vice, as well as desire and ignorance, and attained Brahman’ (2.3.18). It shows that spiritual fulfi lment can do wonders to a person’s character, permeat-ing it with divine bliss, and that without authentic spiritual nourishment humans remain mere bio-logical beings. Swami Vivekananda tells us: ‘Th is is the watchword of the Vedanta—realize religion.’10 Nachiketa stands for this realization.

Being the embodiment of śraddhā, Nachiketa provides an ideal worthy of emulation for all time. He tells us that higher goals can only be attained through deep devotion to higher ideals, and a strong determination to transcend our lower na-ture. Deep indeed was Swami Vivekananda’s love for Nachiketa and great was his confi dence in the ideal that Nachiketa personifi ed. He said: ‘If I get ten or twelve boys with the faith of Nachiketa, I can turn the thoughts and pursuits of this country [India] in a new channel.’ (7.231). May we all be Nachiketas and fulfi l Swamiji’s vision. P

References 1. RigVeda,10.135.Th esacrificialfirenamedafter

NachiketafindsmentionintheTaittiriyaBrah-mana,3.11.

2. Th e Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,9vols(Calcutta:AdvaitaAshrama,1–8,1989;9,1997),3.244.

3. Katha Upanishad,1.1.2–3. 4. Complete Works, 4.484. 5. Katha Upanishad, 1.1.20–21. 6. Mundaka Upanishad,3.1.6. 7. Katha Upanishad,1.1.23,25. 8. Complete Works,6.88. 9. Katha Upanishad,1.1.27.10. Complete Works,2.165.

Shraddha · Yogis adopt the means of reverential faith, energy, repeated recollection, concentration,

and discriminative knowledge (and attain samadhi). The tranquillity that is experienced through reverential faith or shraddha sustains a yogi like a loving mother. Such faith gives a seeker after discriminative know-ledge energy, which brings him (sustained) memory, which makes the mind undisturbed and collected and conducive to concentration. In such a mind dawns the light of discriminative knowledge by which the yogi understands the real nature of things. By retaining such knowledge and cultivating detachment towards all knowables one attains asamprajnata samadhi. —Vyasa on Yoga Sutra, 1.2


Narada Bhakti Sutra Swami Bhaskareswarananda(Continued from the previous issue )

5. Yat prāpya na kiñcid vāñchati, na śocati, na dveṣṭi, na ramate, notsāhī bhavati.Having attained which [parā bhakti], one goes beyond all wants, becomes free from grief and hatred, does not rejoice over anything, and does not exert oneself in pursuit of self-interest.

Nāradīyā bhakti is based on jnana. It is based on the consciousness of identity [with the Divine], and this is the essence

of jnana. Ordinary bhaktas are afraid of jnana, but bhakti is not emotion. Bhakti implies vibrations of the absolute Reality. No divine love can exist with-out the light of knowledge. Devotion means modi-fying ourselves in accordance with the nature of the beloved Deity, the absolute Reality.

The love that an ordinary lover feels in the begin-ning is replaced, when intensified, by lust and such other propensities. Therefore, Narada suggests that you ought to have right consciousness, right under-standing about your beloved, God. Then, through absorption in love, this correct understanding will make you transcend the world and the ego.

Narada has pointed out the positive side of the fulfilment attained through bhakti. Now he ex-plains the negative side of the same achievement. Fundamentally it is the same thing put in differ-ent words. Just as the statement ‘my stomach is full’ may be expressed in negative terms as ‘I don’t feel hungry’. Both aspects are stated for emphasis. Such a devotee has no desire, no sorrow, no hatred, no re-joicing, and does not exert oneself in self-interest.

Na kiñcid vāñchati; has no desire. The know-

ledge of the unreality of the world is a concomi-tant effect of the realization of the absolute Reality through love. So how can there be desire? When you are awake, you don’t desire for the changing objects of dreams. Mathur Babu tried to tempt Sri Ramakrishna—to arouse desire in his mind. But, for Sri Ramakrishna, nothing existed except the Divine Mother. So he merged into samadhi. The thrust of this sutra is the absolute impossibility of any reaction based on the subject-object relation-ship in a bhakta. Not merely the five types of reac-tions mentioned in the sutra, but all reactions based on ‘subject-object realism’ vanish.

A person who has attained parā bhakti will not be dead like a stone. A brahmajña, knower of Brah-man, also goes out for walks, asks for sugar in tea, and feels sympathy for others and happiness at their achievements. He is not like a wall. But he does not feel the world as real. Swami Vivekananda wept for the world. But he was fully conscious of the abso-lute Reality that appears in different forms.

Brahmajñas may appear to have desires, sorrows, joys, and the like. However, in their case, these are not reactions to the ‘subject-object realism’ but ex-pressions of their transcendental identity with the absolute Reality—the reality underlying all, which is appearing as many. The consciousness of the brahmajña is different, so the effect of these emo-tions is also different. Sri Ramakrishna expressed sorrow when someone’s son died, but he fell into samadhi while doing so. Ordinarily, sorrow might lead to fainting, but Sri Ramakrishna merged into samadhi. The reactions appear similar in form but are totally different in nature.

These are the criteria of a sadhu’s life. As one advances towards real bhakti, perfection will come in one’s life. This will be seen as the negative

The text comprises the edited notes of SwamiBhaskareswarananda’sclassesontheNarada Bhakti Sutra, taken down by some residents of the Rama-krishnaMath,Nagpur.Theclasseswereconductedbe-tween17December1965and24January1966.

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achievements mentioned by Narada and marked by the disappearance of reactions due to the ‘subject- object realism’. Your desires, sorrow, hatred, and the like—based on selfishness, personal interest, and the consciousness of ‘I’ and ‘mine’—must vanish. If you have attained perfection, you are bound to be desire-less. Otherwise, yours is only an ‘idea’ of perfection or divinity.

6. Yat jñātvā matto bhavati, stabdho bhavati, ātmārāmo bhavati.Realizing which, one becomes intoxicated and fascinated, and enjoys the bliss of the Atman.

The labdhvā and prāpya of parā bhakti, mentioned in the previous sutras, are not emotional expres-sions; nor are they achievements based on the subject-object relationship. They are transcenden-tal achievements. This implied meaning is now ex-plicitly stated by Narada through the phrase ‘yat jñātvā, realizing that’.

This realization has been indicated by such Upa-nishadic statements as ‘tvaṁ strī tvaṁ pumān-asi; You are the man, You are the woman’, and ‘tameva bhāntam-anubhāti sarvaṁ, tasya bhāsā sarvamidaṁ vibhāti; He shining, all these shine, through his lustre all these are variously illumined’.

To realize the glow of Consciousness or cidvilāsa, the play of Consciousness, is real achievement of bhakti. Sadhakas will achieve transcendental bhakti only if their basic consciousness is one of tvaṁ strī tvaṁ pumān-asi, the Reality appearing as all.

Narada says that if you proceed with this con-sciousness then you will have more and more ab-sorption in your beloved Deity, wherein there will be tremendous dynamism—one becomes intoxi-cated as it were, matto bhavati. This will be followed by transcendental tranquillity, like an undercurrent in the sea. One will experience that an all power-ful dynamic pull is taking one to the bedrock of real Being.

The term matta signifies transcendental intoxi-cation, not the ordinary excitement of the so-called bhaktas. It implies loss of individuality due to tran-scendental intoxication resulting from identifica-

tion with the absolute Consciousness.Stabdha also suggests transcendental in-

toxication—without excitation, with absolute tranquillity.

Ātmārāma: The bhakta is one with the Atman, is identified with the bliss of the Atman. There is mattatā and absolute tranquillity because the world has vanished for such a devotee. Since, in the bhak-ta’s consciousness, there is nothing but the Atman—the blissful all pervading Reality—there is mattatā, indescribable joy or ānanda, and stabdhatā.

Do you remember Swami Saradananda’s de-scription of Sri Ramakrishna’s dance? He was like a fish swimming blissfully, to and fro, in the ocean of Brahman. This is the indescribable ānanda of absolute communion with Brahman, the reality of all, communion with one’s own self, svarūpa, without consciousness of the subject-object di-chotomy—the abode of absolute harmony express-ing as harmony in movement. This is the state of bhūmā described in the Chhandogya Upanishad: ‘yatra nānyat paśyati nānyat śṛṇoti nānyat vijānāti sa bhūmā; the Infinite is where one does not see anything else, does not hear anything else, does not understand anything else’—no subject-object consciousness, absolute stabdhatā.

Thus Narada provides us with the criteria for judging our spiritual progress, on the lines of devel-oping correct consciousness. Are you getting more and more attuned to Him (mattatā), becoming more and more tranquil (stabdhatā) because of the gradual disappearance of the subject-object con-sciousness, do you have your ārāma, contentment, in the Atman and nothing else? These must follow if you have fallen in love, not with any person but with bhūmā, the absolute Reality.

7. Sā na kāmayamānā, nirodha-rūpatvāt.Bhakti is not of the nature of lust, because it is a form of control.

Emotion leads to ruin and devotion to spirituali-zation. So the psychological characteristics of de-votion, in contrast to emotion, are being pointed out by Narada. If you want to be a real bhakta,

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you must remember these characteristics. Narada begins with a negative expression. In parama prema, which is synonymous with perfection, there is no subject-object consciousness. Hence there cannot be any desire or kāma. Kāma also means lust. Na kāmayamānā signifies absence of any vibration or ripple of lust. Since lust is the arch-enemy of a sadhaka, it cannot remain in a true devotee.

Generally, lust is considered an unavoidable fea-ture of the human organism, and its presence is taken for granted. It is even said that it has no antagonism to bhakti. People with such views say, ‘You go on with your devotion; it is not hindered by lust. Lust is a natural phenomenon, like hunger, thirst, or ex-cretion.’ Such people do not even attempt to be free from lust, because they do not believe in a ‘lust-less’ mental state. They smile or connive at lust, and thus fall prey to it. Modern psychologists say that it is lust that is sublimated into divinity, which means that divinity is another form of lust. So they say that lust is the ‘dark reality’, unavoidable in humans. Narada comes to the rescue of the devotee: You already have weaknesses, and if your ideal is faulty, you will be nowhere. Do not think that divinity can be realized through so-called sublimation or suppression. They may have a relative value. The true path and goal is illumination, the transcendental illumination of the absolute Reality.

Narada states the impossibility of the coexist-ence of lust with parā bhakti. Ideal bhakti cannot allow even a trace of lust. Nirodha or restraint of desire is another aspect of parā bhakti. Nirodha and parama prema are the two aspects of parā bhakti, like the obverse and reverse of a coin. They are one and the same.

The nature of bhakti is such that lust must vanish from the bhakta. Disappearance of lust is a specific criterion of progress in real bhakti. With kāma or lust you cannot expect bhakti at all, because kāma has an overpowering nature. Lust-less-ness was the very being of Sri Ramakrishna’s personality. He saw the Divine Mother in prostitutes. He would fall into samadhi on hearing vulgar slang [as all speech was derived from the Divine Mother].

8. Nirodhastu loka-veda-vyāpāra-nyāsaḥ.Restraint or renunciation is consecration of all activities, sacred and secular [to the Divine].

Next, Narada describes the nature of nirodha in a perfect bhakta. Nirodha may mean control of lust and other desires. This is the nature of nirodha in an ordinary sadhaka, or a moralist. This is not the case with a real bhakta. Hence Narada uses the par-ticle tu, but. In a real bhakta, who has realized the absolute Reality, there is no trace of subject-object consciousness. Total transcendence of lust is the na-ture of this nirodha. Such bhaktas do not see men as men or women as women; they clearly see and know men and women to be expressions of the lila of the absolute Reality.

Narada uses the expression ‘loka-veda-vyāpāra-nyāsa’, the giving up of all activities related to the world or enjoined by the Vedas. Karma, any activity, presupposes subject-object consciousness. If there is no subject, there is no object either. In such a situ-ation, there cannot be any karma. Then all activity is akarma, non-karma, simply the lila of the Lord through name and form. This is the consciousness of the ideal bhakta who has realized the absolute Reality.

You have to struggle in the beginning, no doubt. But when you know the nature of ideal nirodha, your struggle will be in the correct direc-tion; you will struggle to go beyond the ‘subject-object realism’ and try for total nirodha through illumination.

In the Mandukya Karika, Gaudapada takes up the issue of the so-called nirodha in contrast with transcendence. It is like trying to empty the ocean by repeatedly draining out its water with a straw. You will then have to wait for an eternity. You may run away from temptations for the time being, but that will not solve the problem. Hence Gaudapada says: transform your consciousness by illumination even as you struggle. When the bhakta attains the knowledge of the absolute Reality and is able to realize Bhagavan through love, nirodha will auto-matically be achieved. No ripple of lust can arise in such a person. (To be continued)

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Light on Patanjali – IISwami Sarvagatananda

Practise!

The thirteenth aphorism [of the first chap-ter of the Yoga Sutra] defines practice as the continuous struggle to keep the [innate] ten-

dencies perfectly restrained. For any knowledge we need both detachment and practice. That is why in our education we follow a disciplined method.

We get out of our regular environment, go to schools, confine ourselves to a particular classroom and teacher, and, by concentrating on the subject, we learn. Also, when studying at home we make use of detachment by keeping away from all other things at that time.

In yoga, practice and detachment are all the more necessary because you are dealing with your own mind—one of the worst and one of the best things in the world. This mind is everything from the point of human life. The whole secret lies in know-ing your own mind; you get the awareness of your true nature—call it God or by any name, behind your mind is the whole truth. That is why in raja yoga the whole discipline is in the mind. Through mental discipline, through mind control, one comes to know one’s true nature. When people talk about God-realization, realization of Truth, realization of Brahman, these are all mere words, the experience is the realization of your true nature.

What is it in your present condition that stands between you and your true nature? The contents

of your mind. Whatever you have accumulated, acquired, heard, read, imagined, seen, dreamt has piled up in your mind-stuff. These impressions do not allow you to see your own true nature. You have to purify your mind. How? How do you pu-rify water? You remove all foreign elements from it; it is filtered, distilled, even re-distilled, until the water contains nothing but water. So also, purity of mind means that there should be nothing else there. What else is there? Look at your own mind.

All your knowledge and experience, bundled up, is your mind; and it is acquired, it is not your true nature. No doubt, in a subtle way, certain things have come; they are also in the mind-stuff, along with what you acquired in this life.

Behind this mind-stuff is the pure Light, this Light does not shine through it [freely]. How do you purify this mind? You cannot remove from the mind these thoughts and ideas. They will all be there, you cannot touch them, but you can silence them, integrate them, harmonize them.

How do you silence them? Patanjali says, by dis-passion and practice. Suppose somebody is knock-ing at the door and you do not open it, how long will he knock? Dispassion means not opening the door—don’t be attached to the thoughts.

Now, suppose that you are knocking at the door—in this case you know from the words of realized souls that the door will be opened—don’t go away from the door, be there knocking. Practice means to be at it. Therefore be at it, be detached from all your thoughts, constantly. You are happy or unhappy simply because of your attachment to thoughts and ideas. Test yourself: when you are a bit happy find out what happened. A few seconds

Thetextisacompilationofminimallyeditedextractsfromtheauthor’sbookMeditation as Spiritual Culmina-tion: Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali(Boston:VedantaSoci-etyofMassachusetts,2005).Thebookisatranscriptoftheauthor’slecturesonrajayoga,deliveredbetweenSeptember1977andJune1981,atBoston.

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ago you were calm, now suddenly you are elated, why? Something came to your mind—some idea, some information—and now you are happy. Im-agine! It was just an idea that came, nothing else, and immediately you are disturbed or happy. See what ideas can do! An aeroplane crashes some-where, if none of the victims are related to you, you feel sorry but not disturbed; if one of the victims is your own, immediately you are disturbed—it is the same news, attachment is the difference; you iden-tify with the victim. This is the case not only with persons but also with thoughts. Somebody tells you something; you identify with the thought and become miserable. Not only are you miserable, you make others miserable. Examine all the thoughts. If any disturbance comes to your mind, any misery, any dislike, behind that disturbance is attachment. Be detached, and practise, be constantly at it. Don’t allow any thought to crowd you, to distract you, to influence you, to drag you down.

Don’t take any thought lightly. A thought by itself may be nothing, but the effect is cumulative: if you are told that somebody is bad, the first few times you may not take it seriously, by the fourth time you become biased—for nothing, as you don’t know the truth.

The accumulation of thoughts creates prejudice in our minds. All prejudices are based on this ten-dency. We don’t examine our thoughts, we accept them. Even if they are factual, what right have you to disturb yourself ? Suppose it is true, why should you drag yourself there? Detachment is very impor-tant, as is its practice.

Mindfulness

The effect of practice is described in the fourteenth aphorism: ‘It becomes firmly grounded by long constant effort, with great love and devotion for the end to be attained.’ This practice must be done continuously, constantly—not just examining once and then haphazardly or no more. If you want to make a tight, strong barricade, it must be a continu-ous process, a long constant effort. Be constant, you must be at it.

This is what Buddha exhorted: ‘Be mindful, be alert.’ Don’t allow any thought to come up. You must practise constantly.

It is the same in any art; if you practise once a month your music lessons, what do you get out of it? If you want to be something you have to prac-tise every day; then ‘it becomes firmly grounded by long constant effort, with great love and devotion’. You must be at it, you must love the practice; then it becomes grounded.

Those who are spiritually set must be very, very careful that there is no light-mindedness; otherwise they can suffer a lot. Be at it, be aware, be mindful, be alert. You have to avoid three types of laziness—physical, mental, and spiritual.

Physical laziness is not keeping good health, being given more to sleep, eating too much, in-dulging in unhealthy foods—these pull the mind down. Mental laziness is daydreaming, not keep-ing alert, allowing negative thoughts to come and tip you over. A thought becomes powerful when you are interested in it, when you pay attention to it—you are to avoid both. By repeating a thought it becomes powerful. Don’t allow it to come and crowd you when your mind is at leisure. Keep the mind always active, purposeful, on something posi-tive; then there is no chance for a negative thought to come in.

When you are at leisure the mind goes down, that is the mind’s natural tendency. Sri Rama-krishna gave a good example: ‘When you pour water, where does it go? To the lowest level.’ An uncontrolled mind also seeks the lowest things, the easiest things, sensate things, worldly things. Therefore do not allow the mind to lose its ground; hold it always.

Spiritual laziness is when there is no ideal, no purpose, no goal in life. We get up in the morning, go to a job, then go to a movie, or do this and that; we spend our time in a purposeless way, with no goal or ideal. These three types of laziness can pull you down, disturb you. Practice means to be at it. Swami Vivekananda says, ‘Restraint does not come in one day, but by long continued practice.’

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You have to practise many times a day. It is not mechanical. Many times certain rituals, religious practices look mechanical—but the mind must be there to get the full meaning; then you gain more depth. It is a constant struggle, a constant practice. In human life, struggle we must for our existence, survival, comfortable life, for anything we desire. Without struggle, nothing comes.

As you have to struggle anyway, why don’t you struggle for some higher purpose? Keep a goal. You have to struggle, you cannot exist without strug-gling; this the Gita says.

In spiritual life there are many disciplines that must be regularly followed without omissions. Why? Because you have to create a new psyche, be-cause you have to dehypnotize yourself. In the cre-ation of a new psyche you have to be at it constantly because the old habits are so strong, accumulated, powerful.

To undo them you have to do something positive, constructive, healthy, and spiritual. The old habits do not go easily, you cannot destroy them. You have to remain detached and create new habits.

As these new habits become more and more powerful, they do not allow negative tendencies to arise. A time comes when this mind gains a pur-pose, gains strength; then the old habits slowly fade away.

How are the unruly, the violent, the sinful re-formed? First they are taken away from society, iso-lated—that is detachment. Then they are taught something positive, a vocation—that is practice. Society isolates but does not reform, for that re-quires a lot of time, constant attention, and a lot of money.

Mahatma Gandhi once experimented along these lines in one of the states of India. All the pris-oners were taken out of jails, put on a six-hundred-acre plot, and taught farming, weaving, and carpentry. The experiment worked well for some time; many people came out from it, well set for life in society; but later, politicians interfered with its operation. Also, the individual attention required made it very costly.

The reformation of our mind follows the same rules as does the reformation of the prisoner, that is, isolation and practice. Get away from society for some time, think for yourself, examine your own thoughts, give your mind some constructive thoughts.

Fortunately we have on hand the teachings of the Upanishads, of all the great saints of the world: Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, and also other great souls. From them we can learn how to make our lives fruitful. Detachment is most important here, without it practice has no meaning. You cannot teach any serious subject to a child playing in a crowd, you have to take him away from there.

Detachment

‘Renunciation is the power of battling against these forces and holding the mind in check,’ says Swami Vivekananda. Thoughts come, but do not create ripples. How? By detachment.

If somebody unknown dies, you are not dis-turbed; if somebody close to you dies, then imme-diately your mind becomes agitated because of the lack of detachment. Be detached, then you can be concerned, without being disturbed, you can act positively: ‘How can I help? What is to be done?’

This renunciation is what I want. I am passing through a street, and a man comes and takes away my watch. That is my own experience. I see it my-self, and it immediately throws my chitta, the mind-stuff, into a wave, taking the form of anger. Do not allow that anger to come. Raja yoga does not tell me to keep quiet and let the man take everything away from me. By not being disturbed, thrown into anger, I can use my intelligence properly, I can be more constructive and practical. The following ex-perience of a monk shows how one can be effec-tive without being disturbed: A monk is travelling in a crowded train from Bombay to Pune. There are seats for forty in the car and eighty are already there. A strong man stands at the door and prevents more from entering. Then at one station an elderly lady tries to get in; this man prevents her. The train starts moving and she is holding to the outside of

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the car. The monk gets up slowly, comes to the door, bodily lifts the man and puts him aside, opens the door, brings the lady inside, closes the door, and sits down again, without saying one word.

The train travels sixty miles further, people are coming and going, nobody says anything; there is absolute silence. Everything goes on well. That is ef-fective work. There is no anger, no argument. The monk is absolutely detached; he does what is neces-sary and goes back to his corner. You can be more ef-fective if you are cool and calm. Anger disturbs you; you lose your mind for nothing. A show of anger has its place, but be not angry. Swami Vivekananda says: Anger throws one off balance. Allow not that to come. If you cannot prevent that, you are noth-ing; if you can, you have vairagya, renunciation.

Sensate feelings come, how does one stop them? By dispassion, by detachment. Many times we stop them out of helplessness, out of social necessity. But they all can be silenced easily when you yourself analyse them: ‘No, that is not good.’

To deny them, and not allow the mind to come to a wave form with regard to them, is renunciation. ‘Not coming to a wave form’ means to not allow the mind to be disturbed by anything that happens. This is an art which you have to practise regularly.

Once you lose your mind, you are gone, you can-not think. This sequence of events is described in the Bhagavadgita: When anger comes, what hap-pens? Anger throws you into confusion. When there is confusion in your mind, you cannot re-member things properly. When you cannot re-member things properly, the wisdom that you have gained you will lose. When you lose your wisdom, you are lost.

Anger finally leads you to losing your ground. It is a very mysterious psychological process, which can happen to you by just contemplating one thought. Examine yourself and find out what throws you off.

How Did We Get Ourselves into This Mess?

Question: If we all started from the Truth, then how did we get ourselves into this mess?

Answer: This question was asked of Swami Vivekananda nearly eighty-five years ago. He said: The Hindu is bold enough to say, ‘I do not know.’ How we got into this mess we do not know, hon-estly, except to say that God threw us into this hell. God created me and said: ‘Get out’, and pushed me into this. Here I am, searching here and there. This is one explanation: God threw us into this and we are helpless.

Question: He is not very kind to us.Answer: He is not very kind from that stand-

point. But there is another aspect to it: I do not know how this whole mess started but I know how to get out of it. Shankara gives a beautiful example: Suppose you enter a deep, dark cave, and standing there ask: ‘How long has this darkness been here?’ You cannot answer this question. But Shankara said: ‘I do not know how long it has been dark here but I can tell you how to get rid of it: bring a light.’ The darkness doesn’t say: ‘I have been here for the last two billion years, I cannot go right away.’ That darkness goes away immediately when one strikes a little match. Knowledge is like that match.

I do not know the cause of this mess, how it came about, but I can get rid of it by means of raja yoga. Buddha said the same thing: ‘We can get rid of the clinging that is within us. We do not need to go to the scriptures to learn who created it, when it was created, how long it is here. Don’t worry about all these things, you can get out of this now, destroy the clinging.’

‘Being detached’ means that. Be detached from the external and the internal, and you will get it, Pa-tanjali said. ‘We do not know how long it has been there, how many births we have gone through.’ In the Gita Sri Krishna tells Arjuna the same thing: ‘You and I have passed through many births, O Arjuna; I know them all, you do not.’ We do not know.

This is the beauty of it: we do not know how it started, but we know how to get out of it. All these books are for this purpose, to get out of this cosmic mess. We do not know who created this. P

Chandrabhaga River, Pandharpur


Vithoba of Pandharpur Dr Suruchi Pande

(Continued from the previous issue )

eferences to Pandharpur and Vitthala are found in the Puranas, in the abhangas

(hymns) of the saints, in stone inscriptions, and in popular literature.

Early References to Pandharpur and Vitthala ⁶

Puranic Sources · Th e sthalamahatmyas (chap-ters on ‘greatness of sacred sites’) in the Puranas contain a wealth of fable, legend, and historical information as well as refl ections on ancient tradi-tions and indigenous culture.

Th e Skanda and Padma Puranas refer to places known as Panduranga-kshetra and Pundarika-kshetra or Paundarika-kshetra. Th e Padma Purana also mentions Dindiravana, Lohadanda-kshetra, Lakshmi-tirtha, and Mallikarjuna-vana, names that are associated with Pandharpur. Th ere are mythi-cal tales connected to these popular names. For instance, the Dindiravana forest was so named be-cause it was associated with the demon Dindirava. When his arrogance crossed all limits, Vishnu took the form of Mallikarjuna Shiva and put him to death with an iron rod, lohadanda.

Again, when Krishna started showing greater affection for Radha, Rukmini was displeased, and leaving Krishna in Dwaraka, she went away to Dindiravana on the River Bhima. In order to pacify her, Krishna came to Dindiravana with his cowherd companions, the gopas. Th ey camped at Gopalpur while Krishna went to meet Rukmini.

So the Gopalakrishna of Gopalpur is an important deity even today. While he was looking for Rukmini, Krishna also met the famous devotee Pundalika.

Another legend tells of the beautiful Padma who was performing hard penance to get a suitable hus-band. Satisfi ed with her tapas, the Deity appeared before her in a very handsome form. Seeing him, Padma lost consciousness, her hair all-dishevelled (muktakeshi). Her wish was granted and the place of her tapas became ‘Kshetra Muktakeshi’.

Th ere are stories related to the names of vari-ous places in the Pandharpur Kshetra. Th ese are also attempts at synthesizing the cults of Shiva and Vishnu or the Sri Venkatesha and Sri Vitthala form of Vishnu. It is interesting to note that Venkatesha and Vitthala do not have any prominent place in the Puranas, but they are extremely popular deities. And there are interesting parallels in their tradition. Vitthala is adored in his balarupa (child form) and Venkatesha is balaji.7 Both their consorts stay apart. Padmavati, Venkatesha’s wife, was displeased with her husband for tolerating Bhrigu’s insult. So she went away, fi rst to Karavira and then to Tiruchanur, three miles away from Tirumalai, where Venkatesha resides. Both Venkatesha and Vitthala do not carry any weapons. Some of the images of these deities obtained from archaeological excavations also show similarities. Both the icons are katinyasta kara (hav-ing their hands on their waist). Th e Panduranga-shataka by Sri Shankaracharya explains the reason:

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Vithoba of PandharpurPramanam bhavabdheridam mamakanam Nitambah karabhyam dhrito yena tasmatVidhaturvasatyaihi dhrito nabhikoshah Parabrahmalingam bhaje pandurangam

I pray to the Panduranga, the representation of Para-brahman, who rested his hands on his waist to show his devotees the depth of the ocean of samsara, and who holds a (lotus) bud in his navel for Vidhata (Brahma) to stay.8

Stone Inscriptions · Th e beam on the eastern door of the Solakhambi Mandap bears a Sanskrit-Kannada inscription (c. 12th cent. ce) written in Devanagari, which says that the Hoyasala Yadava Vir Someshwara donated the land of Hiriyaganja for the service—angabhoga and rangabhoga of Sri Vitthala. Th e Chauryanshicha Shilalekha is another famous inscription. Chauryanshi is eighty-four in Marathi. It is believed that rubbing one’s back on the surface of this stone inscription provides lib-eration from eighty-four lakh births. Experts be-lieve that this inscription can be dated to seventeen years before the composition of the Jnaneshwari text (c. 1290 ce). Another inscription from Heb-bali near Dharwad—dated to 1248 ce—bears the phrase ‘Sri Pandurangeya Sri Vitthaladevara’.9

It can be reasonably inferred from historical records that Vitthala and Pandharpur started gain-ing widespread popularity and loving acceptance among the masses aft er the 6th cent. ce. A copper-plate inscription of that period mentions Pandhar-pur as a palli (small village), while in the inscription of the Hoyasalas it is a mahagrama (big village or town). Th is transition is suggestive of the growth of devotion to Vitthala.

The Meaning of ‘Varkari‘Every Maharashtrian is fa-miliar with the term ‘Var-kari’. It brings to mind a characteristic image: a per-son dressed in dhoti and uparane (a small piece of cloth worn loosely round the shoulders), with bukka on the forehead, a rosary of tulsi beads round the neck, tal (cymbals) in hand, a saf-fron fl ag on the shoulder, continuously repeating ‘ramakrishna hari ’. A Var-kari is one who religiously performs the vari (pil-grimage) to Pandharpur on foot, especially during the months of Ashadha (mid June to mid July) and Kartika (mid October to mid November). Many people go on pilgrimages, but the term ‘Varkari’ has got exclusively associated with the pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Th e term not only suggests a spe-cifi c appearance, it also suggests the espousal of a particular philosophy and a certain way of life. Th e Varkari sampradaya (tradition) has also produced a succession of distinguished and elevated saints.

One who goes to Pandharpur on a vari is a Va-rikar or Varkari. Th ere are several opinions about the origin of the term. According to Sri Rajvade vari means a group or a mass of particulars or in-dividuals (2). Th e Amarakosha mentions vara as synonymous with sanghata and samudaya (that is, a group) as well as avasara, opportune time.10 Th e Jnaneshwari also mentions vari:

Yachi ekepari, rupakachiya kusari;Saritase vari, samsarachi.From this (simile of a tree), the Lord has skilfully shown the futility of the world and has given a way out of the cycle of birth and death.11

Aise vairagya he kari, tari sankalpachi sare vari;Sukhe dhriticha dhavalari, buddhi nande.When thus dispassion is achieved the resolve [for en-joyment] becomes power less, the seeker gets cour-age and the pure intellect starts working (6.377).

A Varkari

A stone inscription in the Vitthala Temple

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Here the word vari means ‘a trip, rounds, or going about’.12 According to Molesworth’s Marathi-English Dictionary, vari means ‘the practice of pro-ceeding regularly at recurring monthly or annual periods on pilgrimage to any sacred place’. The practices of various saints and devotees have given ‘Varkari’ its current meaning ‘the ritual pilgrimage to Pandharpur’. In every village and in every city of Maharashtra we find people who proudly call themselves Varkaris.

The Varkari sampradaya is also called the Mal-kari or Bhagavata sampradaya. Why are Varkaris called Malkaris? This is because they wear a rosary of tulsi beads, and tulsi is dear to Vitthala. This rosary is the symbol of a life dedicated to Vitthala. One who offers everything to Bhagavan is a bhaga-vata. The term suggests a preponderance of bhakti, devotion. The Eknathi Bhagavata text says:

Dara sutagrihaprana karave bhagavantasi arpana;He bhagvatadharma purna mukhyatve

bhajan ya nava.The true sense of the Bhagavata religion is in dedi-cation of one’s wife, children, home, and life to Bhagavan. Bhajan is the name (main feature) of this (dharma).13

Having dedicated themselves to God, the Vari-karas are naturally generous:

Kaya vacha mane jive sarvasve udara; Bapa rakhumadevi-vara vitthalacha varikara. The Varikara, whose father is Vitthala—the hus-band of Rakhumadevi—is generous with all of his body, speech, mind, and life.14

The Varkari Code of Conduct

The Varkaris follow the tradition of vari to Pandhar-pur. There is also a tradition of vari to Alandi, the birthplace of Jnaneshwar. Ashadha Shuddha Eka-dashi is the important day at Pandharpur and Kar-tika Vadya Ekadashi at Alandi. During the vari to both these places, bhajans are sung from dashami (the tenth day of the fortnight) to purnima or amavasya (the full- and new-moon days). On purnima, all dindis (groups) involved in the vari

go to Gopalpur near Pandharpur. The ceremony of offering kala (parched grains of jowar mixed with curd) is performed here. All the Varkaris par-take of this kala as pious prasad and here ends their holy journey.

The Varkari families follow the tradition of vari with love and devotion from generation to gen-eration. With exalted minds they walk tirelessly to Pandharpur, unmindful of scorching heat or pouring rain. Jnaneshwar and Namdev have beau-tifully described the congregation of these Varkaris. Jnaneshwar says:

Anande preme garjati bhadrajati vitthalache;Tulasimala shobhati kanthi gopichandanachi uti.

Aise ekangavira vitthalarayache dingara;Baparakhumadevivara jihi nirdhari jodala.

(These Varkaris), adorned with tulsi garland round their necks and sandal-paste on their forehead, an-nounce the (name of the) pious Vitthala. Staunch followers, brave men, they are the children of Vitthalaraya. They have united themselves firmly to their father Vitthala, the consort of Rakhuma-devi (ibid.).

Namdev who was contemporaneous with Jnaneshwar says:

Ale ale re hariche dingara Vira varikar pandhariche;

Bhakti premabhava bharale jyanchya angi Nachati harirangi nenati laju.

Here come the children of Hari, the brave Varika-ras of Pandharpur, whose being is full of devotion and love. Coloured by Hari, they dance without reserve (5).

It is interesting to note that though the Bhaga-vata sampradaya emphasizes bhakti, the forms of its upasana (spiritual practices) tend towards Advaita. Though in their works Jnaneshwar and Namdev speak of ‘krishnamurti savali; the black image of Krishna’, or say, ‘hridayi krishnamurti bheto ali; the image of Krishna came to meet me deep in my heart’, the magnificent concept of ‘vishvakara hari-rupa; the cosmic form of Hari’ finds repeated ex-pression in the compositions of the Varkari saints.

Wearing a rosary of tulsi beads is of utmost impor-


tance to the Varkaris. Vitthala is the child (balasva-rupa) Krishna. Th e tulsi plant is dear to Krishna. So a Varikara must wear a rosary containing a hundred and eight tulsi beads as a pious observance. If the thread of the rosary happens to snap, the staunch Varikara would not have food until the rosary is re-paired. Th ere is a touching story about tulsi among the Kunbis (an agricultural community) in Maha-rashtra. It goes like this: Tulsi was the daughter of a poor brahmana. She had a dark complexion and a brahmana husband was not in her fate. Due to pov-erty, her hapless father deserted her. Th e gavali (cow-herd) Vithoba off ered refuge to orphaned Tulsi. But Rukmini was not happy with Vitthala’s overtures. Rukmini’s attitude hurt Tulsi and she decided to take shelter with Mother Earth. As she was disap-pearing in the bosom of the earth, Vithoba hurriedly pulled her out. But instead of Tulsi, the holy basil (tulsi) came into his hands. Vithoba had promised to marry Tulsi. He kept his words by marrying the holy basil. Th is is the reason why Vithoba always has a garland of tulsi around his neck.

Th e rosary keeps the Varkaris alert about their ideals right up to the end of their lives. Sandal-paste (gopi-chandan) and black-powder (bukka) marks on the forehead, and the saff ron fl ag carried on the shoulder are the other important components of their insignia. Th ere are certain moral and ethical precepts that every Varkari is to follow:• Adherence to truth.• Treating all women other than one’s own wife as

Rakhumai (Mother Rukmini).• Confessing unintentional transgressions to

Bhagavan and praying for his forgiveness.• Being a vegetarian.• Visiting Pandharpur and Alandi at least once a year.• Observance of ekadashi fasts.• Japa of one’s mantra at least a hundred and eight

times every day.• Daily study and contemplation of such texts as

the Jnaneshwari and Haripatha.• Performing all household duties with com-

passion but non-attachment, maintaining the awareness of Vitthala.

Th e Varkari philosophy advises devotees to face miseries and hindrances with courage and fi rmness of mind and rise above samsara. No work is futile. We get our share of work because God wishes it to be so. We should work keeping in mind that it is our pious duty to do so and that we are answerable to God. Th e Varkaris are divided into several sub-sects, each having its own mantra: • Chaitanya Sampradaya: It has two divisions; one group repeats the mantra ‘ramakrishna hari ’, while the other repeats ‘om namo bhagavate vasudevaya ’.• Swarupa Sampradaya: Th eir mantra is ‘sriram jaya ram jaya jaya ram ’. Th is sampradaya has two divisions—the Ramanuji and the Ramanandi.• Ananda Sampradaya: Th e followers of this sam-pradaya repeat the name ‘sriram ’ or ‘ram ’.• Prakasha Sampradaya: Members of this sampra-daya chant the mantra ‘om namo narayanaya ’.15

History of the Varkari Sampradaya

It is convenient to divide the history of the Varkari sampradaya into fi ve phases:

(1) From Pundalika to Jnaneshwar(2) From Jnaneshwar to Namdev(3) Th e period of Bhanudas and Eknath(4) Th e Tukaram period (5) Th e post-Tukaram period

From Pundalika to Jnaneshwar · Th e exact time of the devotee Pundalika (or Pundarika) is uncertain. Th e Padma Purana and the Skanda Purana tell the story of Pundalika. Pundalika was

Procession of Varkaris proceeding to Pandharpur

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an ordinary man madly in love with his wife. Due to this inordinate attachment he tended to neglect his own aged parents. Eventually, he met Kukkuta Swami and underwent a radical transformation; service to parents became his foremost priority.

Another story goes like this: When Vitthala was searching for Rukmini in the Dindiravana forest, he happened to chance upon Pundalika’s house. Pundalika was busy serving his parents. So he pro-vided a brick for Vitthala to rest on. Vitthala stood on the brick and waited patiently for his devotee. Aft er completing his services, Pundalika prayed to Vitthala and sang his glories. Th e deity was pleased and he asked Pundalika what he desired most. Pun-dalika requested Vitthala ‘to stay here permanently and lift jivas from ignorance’. Vitthala happily as-sented to the loving demands of his devotee. Hence the place came to be known as Pundarikapur.

Th ere is no unanimity about the period of the Puranas. So it is diffi cult to ascertain when Pun-dalika lived. It can be inferred from epigraphic evi-dence that at least half a century before the time of Jnaneshwar people knew a sage called Pundalika Muni. Th e Panduranga-shataka-stotra composed by Sri Shankaracharya refers to Pundalika. Sri Shankara charya is generally believed to have fl our-ished around the 8th cent. ce. It follows that Punda-lika and Vitthala were well-known by this time. Th e Rashtrakuta copperplate inscription of 516 ce men-

tioned earlier also refers to the temple of Vitthala.In his book Malutaran, Narahari Dhundiraj

Malu suggests that King Shalivahana, who is re-puted to have initiated the Shaka era, established the town of Pandharpur, placing it under the charge of his chief minister Ramachandra Sonar. Th e for-est of Dindiravana was cleared to erect the temple of Panduranga and a few other temples. Th is text does not appear to be backed by adequate historical evidence; but if there is any truth in it, then the le-gend of Pundalika and the temple of Vitthala goes back to the 1st cent. ce.16

It is, however, indisputable that the Vitthala-bhakti cult was well established by the 6th cent. ce. Aft er this period the cult underwent remarkable growth and spread. Th ere is no specifi c reference clarifying the origin of the vari tradition. But there were people who followed the tradition of vari to Pandharpur well before the time of Jnaneshwar. Namdev says that Vitthalapant, Jnaneshwar’s father, did the Ashadhi and Kartiki varis. People used to come for the darshan of Vitthala from all over Maharashtra, Telangana, and Karnataka at this time. (To be concluded )

[Th e image of Vithoba in the August number (p. ) was courtesy of Sri Chaitanya Deglurkar.]

Notes and References 6. Th ediscussioninthissectionisbasedonSri Vit-

thala: Ek Mahasamanvaya. 7. Incidentally,SwamiBrahmananda,thespiritual

son of Sri Ramakrishna, had this to say aboutBalaji ofTirupatitheveryfirsttimehesawthedeity:‘Iseeafemaledeityhere!’Apparentlythetempleoriginallybelongedtoafemaledeity.Th ewordbalaalsoindicatesafemaledeity.

8. Panduranga-shataka,verse3. 9. BPBahirat,Varkari Sampraday: Uday va Vikas

(Pune:Venus,1988),23–4.10. Amarakosha,2.5.39and3.3.162.11. Jnaneshwari,15.42.12. Varkari Sampraday, 3.13. Eknathi Bhagavata,2.298.14. Varkari Sampraday, 4.15. Bharatiya Sanskriti Kosha,ed.Mahadevashastri

Joshi(Pune:BharatiyaSanskritiKoshaMandala,1993),8.607–8.

16. Varkari Sampraday,25.

Devotees performing parikrama (circumambu-lation) at the Vithoba Temple in Pandharpur

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Ramakrishna’s Infl uenceon Girish’s PlaysSwami Chetanananda(Continued from the previous issue )

The following is a conversation that Girish had with a devotee regarding the play Vilwamangal:

A devotee: ‘You have written so many dramas and created innumerable characters.’

Girish: ‘I could not create a small part of what Ramakrishna has created.’

Devotee: ‘You are really a great actor.’Girish: ‘My goodness! In acting, I could not

even come close to him.’Devotee: ‘Why?’Girish: ‘One day the Master demonstrated how

a false monk behaves, and I tried to show this in the character of Sadhak in Vilwamangal. Sadhak was trying to make Bhikshuk, a thief, his disciple. Let me give you an example.’

Bhikshuk: ‘Will you maintain silence or talk?’Sadhak: ‘I shall talk with those whom I think fi t.’Bhikshuk: ‘Will you light a dhuni fi re?’Sadhak: ‘Sometimes.’Bhikshuk: ‘Will you keep a Bhairavi [a woman companion]?’Sadhak: ‘Secretly.’Bhikshuk: ‘Shall I ask people to give you money or not?’Sadhak: ‘Th ere will be a pot for the homa fi re in front of me, where people will drop money ac-cording to their means.’Bhikshuk: ‘Where will you stay?’Sadhak: ‘I shall fi nd a Shiva temple nearby.’10Girish continued: ‘Th e Master was an expert

in studying and observing human character. He could imitate exactly the gestures and deportment of both men and women. He said: “Th ere is a kind of monk who wears a long cloak. He has a necklace

of rudraksha beads around his neck, strung with a gold or sil-ver string, and in between the beads there are a few precious stones. He behaves as if he is omniscient.” I portrayed the Mas-ter’s description of a hypocrite monk in the char-acter of Sadhak’(59). Although Girish portrayed himself in the character of Vilwamangal, he acted in the role of Sadhak.11

Girish depicted Ramakrishna’s spiritual experi-ences in the following song, which the character Pagalini sang:

He [Krishna] wanders with me holding my hand.Wherever I go, He follows me,Even if I don’t call Him.He wipes my face with great care,And intently looks at my face.When I smile, He smiles; and when I cry,

He cries.How lovingly He takes care of me.So I came to know: who says that the Precious One does not exist?Come and see for yourself whether it is true

or false.He is talking to me with great love.12

When Vilwamangal came to the ferry ghat to cross the river on a stormy night, he saw Pagalini at the cremation ground and requested her divine help to enable him to meet his beloved Chintamani by crossing the river. Girish wrote this song for Pa-galini to sing, which depicts Ramakrishna’s longing for the Divine Mother:

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Where, friend, where is my Chintamani?13Tell me, where has he gone?I have gone mad

having lost the jewel of my heart.Look, I have come to the cremation groundBut he is not here.In caves and forests, how many daysHave I spent weeping for him?Sometimes I besmear my body with ashes,But the burning of my heart

is not thereby allayed.I roam in this empty world enduring

the pain of a thunderbolt in my chest;Still I cannot find his whereabouts.He is the delight of my heart,I ever pine for a sight of him (4.268–9).

When Vilwamangal said that Chintamani was a woman’s name, Pagalini replied: ‘Chintamani is sometimes the Divine Mother Kali and sometimes Krishna. He is Purusha and Prakriti.’ These are all Ramakrishna’s ideas. This drama illustrates how Girish’s mind was saturated with Ramakrishna’s life and philosophy.

Seeing the setting sun and hearing the vesper music in the Dakshineswar temple garden, Rama-krishna used to cry: ‘Mother, another day is gone in vain. Still you have not revealed yourself to me!’ Girish depicted this episode of the Master’s life and his intense longing in the character of Vilwamangal. In the play, Vilwamangal cried out:

There! The conches and bells are sounding;The brahmins are performing their evening

worship.I see the day is already over.Oh! Another day is gone. Still I have not seen

Him! …Reveal yourself to me! O Compassionate Lord,

reveal yourself to me!My heart is riven by despair (4.293–4).

Rupa-Sanatan

Girish witnessed Ramakrishna’s love for God and unique renunciation, and he depicted this in Rupa-Sanatan. The play was first staged on 21 May 1887 at the Star Theatre. It is a five-act play. Like Vilwa-

mangal, Girish based Rupa-Sanatan on a story from the Bhaktamala. In the character of Sanatan, Girish depicted Ramakrishna’s love and longing for God, his austerities, renunciation, truthfulness, and steadfastness for the ideal. But this play also revealed the condition of Girish’s mind just after Ramakrishna passed away.

Abinash Gangopadhyay, Girish’s biographer and secretary, wrote:

In Rupa-Sanatan, Girish showed Chaitanya taking the dust of his devotees’ feet at Chandrashekhar’s house in Varanasi:A Vaishnava: ‘Lord, what are you doing?’ Chaitanya: ‘I am plunged in grief because of sep-aration from Krishna, so I am putting the dust of his devotees’ feet on my body. Thus I shall get the devotees’ grace.’

When this play was staged at the Star Theatre, some Vaishnava leaders were upset. According to them it is unthinkable that Chaitanya would take the dust of his devotees’ feet and smear it on his body. They expressed their anger and even used abusive words against Girish.

Unperturbed, Girish firmly replied: ‘I have seen with my own eyes that Ramakrishna took the dust of his devotees’ feet.’ He continued:

I don’t write anything without knowing the sub-ject myself. One day at a devotee’s house, after kirtan and spiritual talk, Sri Ramakrishna took the dust of that place and smeared it on his own body. When the devotees tried to prevent him, the Master said: ‘You see, this place has been sanctified by the presence of many devotees, spiritual talk, and singing the glory of God. Where God’s name is sung, God himself comes to listen to it. The dust of this place has truly been purified by the touch of the devotees’ feet.’14

The main characters:

ChaitanyaSanatan, prime minister of the nawab of BengalRupa, one of Sanatan’s brothers and also a

ministerVallabha, one of Sanatan’s brothersIshan, Sanatan’s servant

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Buddhimanta, a landlordJivan, a brahmanaHussein Shah, the nawab of BengalRamdin, a jailerNasir Khan, a guardAlaka, Sanatan’s wifeKaruna, Rupa’s wifeVishakha, Vallabha’s wife

Act One · Sanatan sits on the bank of the Gan-ges earnestly praying for renunciation. He feels that Chaitanya, whom he has recently met, is calling him. In the meantime, his servant Ishan arrives and asks him to return home to eat. He also reminds Sanatan that the nawab has sent messengers to him ten times. Sanatan laments that he is still working as a minister of this Muslim ruler, whereas two of his brothers, Rupa and Vallabha, have left and be-come disciples of Chaitanya. He decides to resign from his post.

Buddhimanta and Jivan are very jealous of Sana-tan and his family’s wealth, so they try to damage Karuna’s and Vishakha’s reputations by spreading rumours that their husbands have become mendi-cants. This has no effect on the women, however, because they remain as devoted to Chaitanya as are their husbands, and they worship him in their family shrine.

Vallabha comes to see his elder brother, Sanatan, bringing news of Chaitanya and informing him that the Master will call him at the proper time. He also conveys Rupa’s request that his fortune be distributed among the poor. Sanatan follows his brother’s wish.

Act Two · Jivan delivers a cryptic letter to Ishan for Sanatan. The letter contains only eight sylla-bles—ya, ri; ra, la; I, ram; na, ya—the first and last syllables of each line of this Sanskrit verse:

Yadupateh kva gata mathurapuri Raghupateh kva gatottarakosala. Iti vichintya kuru svamanah sthiram Na sadidam jagat ityavadharaya.

When deciphered, the letter reveals this meaning:

Where now is that Mathura city, where Krishna lived?

Where now is Ayodhya, where Rama ruled?Thinking of this deeply, make your mind firm;Know for certain: This world is not real.

This hint is enough for Sanatan to understand what his brother Rupa wishes to convey. Sanatan decides to go to Varanasi, where Chaitanya is stay-ing. He asks Ishan to look after his wife, Alaka, and to distribute his wealth to the poor, setting aside a small amount for Alaka and Ishan himself. But be-fore Sanatan can leave, two messengers from Hus-sein Shah arrive and forcibly take him to the nawab. Sanatan tells Ishan to give the news to Alaka, but the faithful servant follows his master instead.

Buddhimanta has been spying on Sanatan and tells the nawab that Sanatan is pretending to be ill. But the judge informs the nawab that Buddhi-manta cannot be trusted, as he is doing all types of mischief because Sanatan works for a Muslim ruler. The angry nawab puts some defiled water into Buddhimanta’s mouth, thus forcefully converting him to Islam. When the news of his conversion becomes public, he leaves his family and decides to go to Varanasi. Buddhimanta had spread rumours against Vishakha and Karuna, yet now they come to him dressed as nuns. They advise him to chant Chaitanya’s name and thereby become free from sin. Karuna tells him: ‘Touching a philosopher’s stone, a piece of iron becomes gold; so also, seeing Chaitanya, a man becomes God.’ Buddhimanta then begins to chant Chaitanya’s name.

When Sanatan is brought before the nawab, the ruler asks him to concentrate on his work instead of trying to become a mendicant like his brothers. Sanatan refuses to work and says he wants to resign. He tells the nawab that his mind is focussed on God and so it is not possible to turn it to worldly duties. In response to the nawab’s threats, he says that if he is forced to work, he will kill himself. The nawab orders his guard to put Sanatan in prison, and tells his doctor to treat him if he has any illness.

Alaka dresses like a young brahmin pandit, and Ishan takes her to Ramdin, the Hindu jailer. Ishan

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introduces Alaka, saying that this pandit might change Sanatan’s mind. Ramdin allows her to go to Sanatan and tells her to defeat Sanatan in debate by quoting the scriptures that say family life is better than monastic life. Alaka goes alone to Sanatan’s cell. Sanatan does not recognize her. The two have a lengthy discussion, but Sanatan is determined to re-nounce family life. Finally, Alaka reveals who she is. Sanatan then tells her to return home and surrender herself to Chaitanya. Alaka leaves, in tears.

The nawab comes to the prison and asks Sana-tan to look after his kingdom, because he is going to war with the king of Orissa. Sanatan declines, saying that his mind is on God now and he cannot turn it back to the world. The angry nawab orders the guard to put Sanatan in a dungeon and put his feet in chains. He is also to be given only fried gram and a little water.

Act Three · Alaka, Karuna, and Vishakha meet and plan to rescue Sanatan. Then Ishan arrives but has no news of Sanatan.

Alaka: ‘Ishan, come with me. If I am a chaste woman and have true love for Chaitanya, I shall rescue my husband.’

Alaka again disguises herself as a brahmin pandit and goes with Ishan to Ramdin’s office in the jail.

Ramdin: ‘Hello, pandit. Why do you want to see me? Your luck is bad. But if you could change the mind of the minister, the nawab will give you a lot of property.’

Alaka: ‘I am not only a pandit, but an astrologer also. I see your luck will change tonight.’

Ramdin: ‘What do you mean? I am a low-paid jailer.’

Alaka: ‘I promise that you will be a millionaire tonight.’

Ramdin: ‘I promise that if I get a million rupees tonight, I shall give you whatever you want.’

Alaka: ‘You have promised! Now take this jewel-lery. It is worth more than a million rupees.’

Ramdin: ‘Where did you get this jewellery? Who are you?’

Alaka: ‘I am the wife of Sanatan. Please keep your promise and release my husband, or I shall kill

myself with this knife.’Ramdin is in a dilemma. He tells Alaka that

there is a Muslim named Nasir Khan who is guard-ing Sanatan. However, he will try his best to release Sanatan.

Meanwhile, Nasir enters Sanatan’s dungeon and asks him: ‘Sir, you were a minister, and now you are in this dungeon. I hear you talking with someone. I see you are even happier than our nawab. Can you tell me why you are in this condition?’

Sanatan: ‘Look, I am a servant of Chaitanya. How can I serve the nawab? My Lord is always with me.’

Nasir: ‘Sir, I don’t see anyone here. Who is this Chaitanya?’

Sanatan: ‘He is a monk. He saves souls from bondage and distributes God’s name to all.’

Nasir: ‘Sir, I am a sinner and a Muslim. You are very respectable and also a holy man. I put those chains on your feet. Is there any hope for me?’

Sanatan: ‘Nasir, you are a devotee. Chant Chai-tanya’s name and embrace me. He who chants his name becomes holy; it does not matter whether he is a Muslim or a Hindu.’

Just then Ramdin and Alaka enter the dungeon. Nasir salutes his superior, Ramdin, and says that he will not work anymore but instead will chant Chaitanya’s name. He then leaves. Ramdin is sur-prised and feels the grace of Chaitanya. He real-izes that God makes everything favourable for his devotees. He tells Sanatan: ‘I have come here to release you. Please write on this paper that you will continue your service. Then please leave.’

Sanatan: ‘How can I write a lie?’ Ramdin: ‘I shall lie for you. The nawab ordered

me to free you as soon as you agree to continue serving him. There is a horse for you. Please leave; otherwise you will die here.’

Sanatan: ‘The nawab will punish you. Moreover, it is better to die than to lie or deceive others.’

Alaka: ‘O devotee of God, why are you discrimi-nating between truth and untruth now? The Lord Chaitanya is calling you. Please leave this place right now.’

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Sanatan: ‘Don’t delude me anymore, my dear. Once you deluded me and I became involved in worldly life. Please leave me alone.’

Alaka asks Ramdin to release Sanatan and es-cort him out of the dungeon. She will do the rest. Ramdin calls for Nasir, but Ishan enters instead. Surprised, Ramdin asks Ishan how he got in.

Ishan replies: ‘I saw a Muslim leaving through the gate, chanting Chaitanya’s name. He told me that he was going to see Chaitanya. I asked him for his uniform, and he told me where my master was being held.’

Ramdin then unchains Sanatan and takes him outside.

Ishan tells Sanatan: ‘Lord Chaitanya has called you. Let us go to him quickly.’

A boat is waiting for Sanatan and they leave for Varanasi, crossing the Ganges. Alaka becomes a nun like her sisters-in-law and dedicates her life to spreading Chaitanya’s name among the masses.15

Act Four · Sanatan and Ishan are travelling through a forest when Sanatan tells his servant: ‘Ishan, I am having difficulty walking. It is as if someone is pulling me back. I am going to see Lord Chaitanya. Why do I have such difficulty? Ishan, when you come near me, I can’t breathe. I am afraid to look at your quilt; I think it is not pure.’

Ishan: ‘Master, it is made with holy cloth marked with the Lord’s name.’

Meanwhile a man comes across Sanatan and Ishan and invites them to his house to eat and rest. He tells them that this place is infested with robbers. Sanatan notices that Ishan is afraid, and asks him: ‘Do you have any money with you? Be honest.’ Ishan replies that he stitched fifteen gold coins into his quilt for the expenses of their journey. Sanatan then realizes why he has been having difficulty walking and breathing. The man accompanying them reveals himself to be a robber, and threatens to attack Ishan. Sanatan stops him and says: ‘Please wait. Take all of my servant’s gold coins, but I beg one from you for him so that he can return home.’ The robber is touched and he honours Sanatan’s request.

He says: ‘I have been watching you for the last

three days. I knew that your servant had money, so I planned to kill you both and take the money. Now that I know you are a real holy man, your life is safe.’

Sanatan asks Ishan to return home, keep all the money he gave to him earlier, enjoy his family, and take refuge in Chaitanya. Ishan reluctantly leaves, blaming those fifteen gold coins for his misfortune. Sanatan continues walking to Varanasi.

Meanwhile, in Varanasi Chaitanya is staying at Chandrashekhar’s house. Rupa and Vallabha arrive and Chaitanya takes the dust of their feet, embar-rassing them. Chaitanya explains his action: ‘Rupa, don’t you know that even the gods worship the devotees of Krishna? Human life is precious. One among millions becomes a devotee of Krishna; you are one of them. You two brothers have come. Now where is my Sanatan?’

Rupa: ‘I have heard that the nawab became angry and put Sanatan in jail.’

Chaitanya: ‘I am convinced that no power in this world can bind Sanatan. He will come here soon.’

Rupa is a great Sanskrit scholar, so Chaitanya asks him to go to Vrindaban and write books on devotional sadhana. Vallabha accompanies him.

Chaitanya later explains why he took the dust of devotees’ feet: ‘When I become anxious because of my separation from Krishna, I take the dust of de-votees’ feet and put it on my body. If I receive the grace of devotees, then I will definitely receive the grace of Krishna.’

Sanatan arrives in Varanasi and meets Chaitanya at Chandrashekhar’s house. Chaitanya is delighted by Sanatan’s story of how he was released from prison. Sanatan wants to stay with his guru, but Chaitanya asks him to go to Vrindaban and take care of the Madanmohan Krishna temple.

Nasir, Ramdin, and Buddhimanta also come to Varanasi, where they meet Sanatan, who encour-ages them to see Chaitanya, the incarnation of love. Chaitanya arrives and accepts the three men as his devotees. He asks them to repeat the name of Krishna.

Act Five · Chaitanya is now in Puri; Sanatan

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is still in Vrindaban and has begun his sadhana at the Madanmohan Krishna temple, where he re-ceived the deity’s grace. Rupa has begun to write on Vaishnava philosophy and also to compose dramas based on Radha and Krishna.

Jivan has come to Vrindaban, where he encoun-ters Sanatan. He tells him that he fasted for seven days and prayed to Lord Shiva for money. On the seventh night, a voice told him in a dream that his wish would be fulfilled in Vrindaban. Jivan does not recognize Sanatan, who is now a poor mendi-cant. Sanatan responds: ‘My goodness! You have come to Vrindaban for money? At any rate, Lord Shiva’s words cannot be false. Look, there is a phi-losopher’s stone in the bushes near my cottage. Any metal you touch with it will turn into gold.’ Jivan picks up the stone and touches his key with it: The key turns into gold. Excited, Jivan asks: ‘Sir, are you Lord Shiva, playing with me?’

When Sanatan tells him who he is, the latter ex-claims: ‘You must be a god. You must have some-thing more precious than the position of prime minister for the nawab and this philosopher’s stone. Please give me that precious thing.’ He then throws the philosopher’s stone into the river nearby. Sana-tan tells him: ‘I am a poor mendicant. I have only Krishna. Please repeat the Lord’s name, “Krishna,

Krishna, Krishna”. ’ Jivan repeats the Lord’s name and his life is changed.

Madanmohan Krishna has been the family deity of the Chaube family. Chaube’s wife and son take care of the deity. But in a vision, Madanmohan tells Chaube’s wife that he will like to live with Sanatan. So she gives the deity to him. Finally Sanatan has the vision of Madanmohan and Radha.

(To be continued)

References and Notes10. Bhakta Bhairav Girishchandra,58–9.11. Sri Ramakrishna O Banga Rangamancha,111.12. Girish Rachanavali,4.274.13. ‘Chintamani’means‘thejewelofthought’.Vilwa-

mangal’sChintamaniwasacourtesan,butPaga-lini’sChintamaniwasKrishna.

14. Girishchandra,217–18.15. GirishherediffersfromBhaktamalaandChaitanya

Charitamrita.AccordingtoChaitanya Charita-mrita,SanatanbuyshisfreedomfromtheMus-limjailerbygivinghim5,000rupees.HetellsthejailertoinformthenawabthathehadbeentakentotheGangestobathe,andhejumpedintoitandwasdrowned.TheMuslimjailertookthemoney,released Sanatan, and helped him to cross theGangesalongwithhisservantIshan.Girish’scon-sciencedidnotapproveofthisdeceitfromadevoutVaishnavalikeSanatan,sohecreatedthecharactersofRamdin,Alaka,andNasirandreleasedSanatanfromthedungeoninamoredignifiedway.

Alexander Gnatyuk-Danilchuk: A Bridge BuilderAlexander Gnatyuk-Danilchuk, who passed away at his apartment in Moscow on 7 July after a prolonged illness, was a true lover of India and Bangladesh. As the board member of the Russian Association of International Relations and the president of the Russian Society of Friendship and Cooperation with Bangladesh, he actively worked for fostering Indo-Russian and Russo-Bangladeshi ties. Born on 21 June 1923, Gnatyuk-Danilchuk obtained his candidature in philology from the Moscow State Uni-versity. A linguist of repute, he worked as the professor of foreign languages at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. A disciple of Swami Bhuteshananda of the Ramakrishna Order, he had close contacts with the Belur Math and the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata. He was well known for his contribution

in popularizing Rabindranath Tagore’s lit-erature in Russia, for which he was con-ferred a doctorate, honoris causa, by the Rabindra Bharati University. He was one of the ten members who established the Ramakrishna Society-Vedanta Centre in Mos-cow in 1995. Earlier, he had started the Russian magazine Saraswati which carried a translation of Swami Viveka-nanda’s Raja-Yoga in Russian and an impressive study of ‘Tolstoy and Vivekananda’. His many books in Russian included Tagore, Bangla-Russian-Bangla Dictionary, and India and the Soviet Union—a Dream Fulfilled. He will es-pecially be remembered by the people of Bengal and Bangladesh for his ardent love for and devotion to Rama-krishna-Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore.


REVIEWSFor review in PRABUDDHA BHARATA, publishers need to send two copies of their latest publications.

Sree Sai Samartha Satcharita: The Life and Teachings of Shirdi Sai BabaGovind Raghunath Dabholkar–Hemadpant; Trans. ZarineSreeSaiPress,C-40OkhlaIndustrialArea, Phase II, New Delhi 110 020.E-mail : [email protected]+802pp.Rs200.

InnumerablesaintsandsageshavemouldedandmovedIndianlifeandsocietyforthousandsof

years.Th esesagesandsaintshaveconstitutedthecountry’srealtreasure.Th isbookisthestoryofaverypopularnineteenthcenturysaintfromMaharashtrawhohascapturedtheimaginationsandheartsofpeopleeverywherebyhissimplicity,love,andso-licitudeforhumanwelfare.ItisnotclearwhetherhewasbornaHinduoraMuslim;and,ofcourse,itisnotimportant.Whatisimportantisthathelivedandexpressedthehighestidealofspirituality.Th isisevidencedbythelargenumberofpeoplewhostillreverehim—manyconsiderhimanavatara—readabouthim,makepilgrimagetohisshrineatShirdi,andmeditateonhislifeandteachings.

Dressedinalongwhitekafni,hisheadcovered,toalloutwardappearancesSriSaiBabawasafakir,andwasknownasone.Healsosleptinanabandonedmasjid.ButhisreligiousbehaviourandteachingsspokeofaHindubackground.Hewasdevotedtogodsandgoddessesandwasaneruditescholarinvariousscriptures.Bornsometimein1838,hespenttwelveyearswithhisguruandcametothevillageofShirdiin1854atagesixteen.Exceptforayear,hecon-tinuedtoliveinShirditillhismahasamadhiin1918.

Initially, thevillagersdidnotunderstandthesaint’sbehaviour,butsadhusandsadhakaswhomethimrecognizedBabatobearealizedsoul,a‘raregem’.Slowlythis‘madfakir’s’greatnessandcharismadawnedonthem.Hespokeinsimplelanguageandtaughtinhomelyparables.Th emanymiraclesat-tributedtohimmadehimverypopularandeveninhislifetimehewasrituallyworshipped.Yetamidst

allthishelovedthevillagechildrenandwaslikeamothertothevillagers.SaiBabapermittedtheauthor (1859–1929) towrite thisbookonlyaftermuchinsistence.Originally,itwasacompositioninMarathiversespanningfifty-threechapters.Tothedevoteesthisisaverysacredwork,fullofthenectarofknowledge.Eachchapterisamixtureofphiloso-phy,anecdotalnarratives,andteachingsofthesaint.Th emanyapparentlymiraculousworksofBabafindanimportantplaceinthetext.

Ausefulglossary,achronologicalindexoftheeventsofBaba’slife,andthenotesattheendofeachchapterareespeciallyusefulforscholars.ButforthedevoteesofBaba,thisisawonderfulcompanionformeditationonthesadguru.

Swami SatyamayanandaProbationers’TrainingCentre

BelurMath

Teachings of Vimalakīrti: Demonstration through Magic and MiraclesSangharakshitaNewAgeBooks,A-44Naraina,PhaseI,NewDelhi110028.E-mail:[email protected].

The Vimalakirti Nirdesha or ‘Teachings of Vi-malakirti’isanunusualMahayanaBuddhisttext.

Vimalakirti isafolloweroftheBuddha,ahouse-holderandmerchant.Yetheisoneoftheforemostofbodhisattvas,andisequippedwithtremendousmiraculouspowers,whichheusestodrivetheteach-ingsofthedharmadeepintotheheartsofhishear-ers,amongwhomnumberhundredsofthousandsofarhatsandbodhisattvas.Sangharakshita,bornDennisLingwood,thewell-knownandlearned—ifsomewhatcontroversial—founderoftheFriendsoftheWesternBuddhistOrderandtheWesternBud-dhistOrderinEngland,presentsadiscussionofandcommentary to theVimalakirti Nirdesha for theBuddhistpractitionerandallseriousspiritualaspir-ants.Anexampleofhisinsightfulcommentary:‘We

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oftenspeakofhigherspiritualexperience—orevennirvāṇa—asifweknewallaboutit.Butwedon’t.Infact,wedon’treallyknowanythingaboutitatall.Wecannotevenconceiveofit.…Emancipation,spiritualemancipation,isalwaysemancipationfromtheknown;andtheattainmentofemancipationisalwaysattainmentoftheunknown,theunpredict-able,theunforeseen,eventheunforeseeable.Everyemancipationisthereforeunconceivable’(13).FromcreatingBuddha-realmstoenteringthe‘Dharma-doorofnonduality’—theBodhisattvastrivestofulfilthevow:‘Howeverinnumerablelivingbeingsare,Ivowtodeliverthem.’

PB

Sri Ramakrishna in the Eyes of Brahmo and Christian Admirers Ed. Nanda Mookerjee Th eRamakrishnaMissionInstituteofCulture, Gol Park, Kolkata 700 029.E-mail:[email protected]+141pp.Rs50.

ItisamatterofgreatjoythatsuchawonderfulbookonSriRamakrishnaisbeingpublishedafteralapse

ofthirtyyears—thisbeingareprintofa1976publica-tion.Itprovidesusanopportunitytohaveaglimpseofagreatlifeinlargerperspective.SriRamakrishnahasimpartedatremendousdynamismandurgencytoreligiouscommitmentandspiritualaspirationsofthemodernhumanbeing.HiscatholicityandGod-centeredlifeattractedtheBrahmoadmirersofKolkata.Th eywerecloselyassociatedwithhimandwereinstrumental,toagreatextent,inbringinghimintothelimelight.HisextraordinarylifealsodrewtheattentionofWesternscholarslikeMaxMüller,RomainRolland,andArnoldToynbee.Th eirunder-standingofthisgreatlifeanditspreceptsalsoformanimportantpartofthisbook.

Inhisintroductoryessay,theeditorhasdescribedlucidly the social milieu of the second half ofnineteenth-centuryIndiaingeneralandBengalinparticular.Hehastakenspecialnoteoftheinfluenceofthethenprevalentsocio-religiousmovementsliketheBrahmoSamaj,theAryaSamaj,andTh eosophy.HementionsthecontroversiesandconflictsthatexistedbetweenthedifferentsectsofHinduism.Fi-nally,hepinpointshowSriRamakrishna’sexemplarylifeanduniqueapproachtoreligioncameasare-freshingandinvigoratingmoralstimulusinaspir-ituallyfragmentedandtruncatedsociety.

Th eintroductionisfollowedbyanimpressivecol-lectionofarticlesonSriRamakrishnabyhisBrahmoandChristianadmirers.Th elistofcontributorsin-cludes:KeshabChandraSen,PCMazoomdar,Shiva-nathShastri,AshwiniKumarDatta,TrailokyanathSanyal,CHTawney,MaxMüller,LordRonaldshay,RomainRolland,NicholasDeRoerich,HermannKeyserling,AlbertSchweitzer,ArnoldToynbee,andErnestHorrwitz.

Each article is remarkable, providing specificinsights into Sri Ramakrishna’s personality: hisspotlessholiness,ineffableblessedness,profoundwisdom,child-likesimplicity,unworldlypeace,andall-absorbingloveforGod.Interestingly,thearti-clesseemtosuggestthatallthecontributorshadthesameaimwhilepenningtheirviews—contem-platingtheunique lifeandmessageofSriRama-krishnaandpayingtheirhomagetoapersonwhoisacclaimedasthe‘prophetofrenascentIndia’.Afewkeydimensionsofthedifferentreligiousphiloso-phiesofIndiahavealsobeendiscussedbysomeofthecontributors.Inseveralofthearticles,SriRama-krishnacomesaliveinourmind’seye:travellinginahorse-carriage,laughingandjoking,andthensud-denlypassingintosamadhi—hiswholecountenanceaglowwithastrangespirituallightasheconverseswithKali,theMother.

Th ebookhasthreeappendices: ‘Th eBrahmoPressonSriRamakrishna’,‘ObituaryNoticesintheBrahmoandChristianPress’,and‘SpiritualExperi-encesofSriRamakrishna(astoldbyhim)’.Achro-nologyofimportanteventsinSriRamakrishna’slife,abibliographicalnote,andphotographsofsomeofthecontributorsareusefuladditionstothetext.

Th ispublicationisavaluablehistoricaldocument.ItalsoallowsusagazeattheblazingsunthatSriRamakrishnawas.

Dr Chetana MandaviaProfessor,PlantPhysiology

JunagadhAgriculturalUniversity,Junagadh

BOOK RECEIVED

Unseen Horizons Vishal PrabhuSanbun,A-78NarainaIndustrialArea,Phase I, New Delhi 110 028. E-mail:[email protected]. 2007.51pp.Rs50.

Abookofpoemsonlife—aboutthe joys, inspiration, and realiza-tionsoflife.

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REPORTS

Celebration and Inauguration at Vivekananda University

Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Belur, celebrated the third anniversary of its foun-dation on 4 July 2008. A special convocation was

held on this occa-sion and Srimat Swami Atmastha-nandaji Maharaj, President, Rama-krishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, declared open the newly constructed cen-

tral building of the university. Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organi-

zation (isro) in-aug urated the Vivekdisha Village Resource Cen-tre (vrc) project under isro–vrc scheme. Prof. S K Th orat, Chairman, University Grants Commission, New

Delhi, was the guest-in-chief. Swami Prabhanandaji, General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Rama-

krishna Mission, presided over the function and awarded diplomas to students who passed out of the Narendrapur and Ranchi Morabadi

faculty centres. Prof. Shankari Prasad Basu was awarded DLitt (honoris causa) for his monumen-tal research work on Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita, and Subhash Chandra Bose.

New Centre in Orissa

On 25 July, Swami Prabhanandaji inaugurated a new branch centre of the Mission at Hatamuniguda in Rayagada district, Orissa, and also laid the founda-tion stone for one of the proposed hostel buildings for school boys there. Th e centre is established in a hundred-acre land received from the Government of Orissa and its address is: Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, PO Hatamuniguda, Tahasil Bissam- Cuttack, Dist. Raya gada, Orissa 765 020. Phone: +91 6863 212323.

Medical Camps

Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Guwahati, con-ducted a medical camp during Ambubachi Mela at Kamakhya Dham from 22 to 25 June, in which 2,570 patients were treated. Besides, several needy pilgrims were given clothes and snacks.

On 29 June, Ramakrishna Math and Rama-krishna Mission, Rajahmundry, conducted a multi- speciality medical camp as part of their regu-lar mobile dispensary activities for tribals at Sirigin-dalapadu, Rampachodavaram. Nearly 800 patients from fi ft y remote villages were treated by seven-teen doctors specializing in diff erent fi elds, and helped by seventy-fi ve volunteers and twenty-eight employees. Various lab tests were also conducted, including X-rays and ecg. All the patients were provided food with the help of Sri I Ramprakash, MD, Godavari Plywood, Rampachodavaram.

New headquarters of Vivekananda University at Belur

Swami Atmasthanandaji inaugurates the new headquartes of Vivekananda University

Swami Prabhanandaji conferring diplomas

Prof. Shankari Prasad Basureceives DLitt (honoris causa)

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518 PB September 2008

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, Kol-kata, organized a function on 27 July to mark the concluding phase of its platinum jubilee celebra-tions. On the occasion, Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj inaugurated a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) unit and gave a benedictory speech. Srimat Swami Gitanandaji Maharaj, Vice President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, and Sri Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister for Exter-nal Aff airs, also addressed the gathering. Swami Prabhanandaji presided over the meeting. About four hundred monks and two thousand devotees attended the function.

Silver Jubilee Celebration

Ramakrishna Math, Madurai, held a function on 12 July in connection with the silver ju-bilee of its school. A life-size statue of Swami Vivekananda was unveiled, a commemo-rative volume released, and a short drama, ‘Meenakshi Kalyanam’, was staged by the

students of the Vidyalaya as the concluding event.

Achievements

Y Jaiprakash Singh, a class-9 student of Rama-krishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar, stood 1st in the ‘15th All India Essay Competition on Road Safety’ conducted by the Central Board of Second-ary Education (cbse), in February. He was awarded a gold medal, a cash prize of Rs 5,000, and a certifi -cate of honour. Another student of the Vidyapith, Nipoon Nandan Roy Choudhury, of class-11, stood 2nd in the ‘10th All India Essay Competition on Ve-

hicular Pollution’, also conducted by cbse in Feb-ruary. He was awarded a silver medal, a cash prize of Rs 3,000, and a certifi cate of honour.

Relief

Flood Relief · Th e following centres continued their relief operations among the fl ood victims in West Bengal. Details of relief materials distributed by them in July are as follows: Belgharia: 16,751 kg chira, 140 kg milk pow-der, 1,715 kg sugar, 5,574 packets of biscuits, 5,406 candles, 5,377 matchboxes, and 304,800 halogen tablets to 14,389 fl ood victims belonging to 6 villages of Sabang block in Paschim Medinipur district and 1 village of Patash-pur block in Purba Medinipur district. Besides, the cen-tre sprayed bleaching powder in two villages, provided medical care to the villagers, and repaired a village road, including 3 culverts, damaged by the fl ood. Chandipur: 5,659 kg chira, 260 kg milk powder, 1,331 kg sugar, gur, and sugar candy, 3,207 kg rice, 166 kg dal, 755 kg potatoes, 3,600 packets of biscuits, 12,000 halogen tablets, and 325 kg bleaching powder to 22,882 victims belonging to Bhagawanpur, Chandipur, and Patashpur areas in Purba Medinipur district and Sabang in Paschim Medini pur district. Contai: 26,556 kg chira, 5,255 kg sugar, 1,477 packets of biscuits, and 100,000 halogen tablets to 9,500 fl ood-aff ected families belonging to 33 villages of Egra and Contai sub- divisions in Purba Medinipur district. Narendrapur: chira and gur to 1,994 fl ood-aff ected fami-lies, and 120,786 plates of khichuri to fl ood victims at Patashpur I and II, Bhagawanpur I, Egra II, and Chandi-pur blocks in Purba Medinipur district and Debra block in Paschim Medinipur district. Tamluk: 12,637 kg chira and 1,264 kg sugar to 3,672 families belonging to 9 vil-lages of Pingla block in Paschim Medinipur district. Taki: 1,400 kg chira, 167 kg gur, 240 packets of biscuits, 50 kg milk powder, and 15,000 halogen tablets to 688 fl ood victims at Hingalganj block in North 24 Parga-nas district. In Orissa, Bhubaneswar centre distributed 3,000 tarpaulins to fl ood-aff ected families belonging to 146 villages of Basta block in Balasore district.

Distress Relief · Belgaum centre distributed note-books and pens to 250 needy school students of nearby areas. Nagpur centre supplied 530 school uniforms, 1,600 notebooks, 530 pens, and other stationery items to needy students of 13 schools in 12 nearby villages. Ul-soor centre gave school uniforms, notebooks, and other items to 7,233 poor students of 82 villages in 4 districts of Karnataka. Besides, the centre built 70 toilets in An-nayanadoddi village of Anekal Taluk in Bangalore urban district as a part of its rural welfare programme. P

Swami Atmasthanandaji at the Seva Pratishthan

Drama performance at Madurai

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rs ˛.˚˚ p brabuddha harata - advaita ashrama · yajnavalkya, a name to reckon with in ancient...

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